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WILLET'S POINT, N. T., 

December 4th, 1876. 



Sir: 



I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of revised proofs of 
the general report of the Judges of Group XVI, upon the military part of the 
recent display at Philadelphia. This report was printed on the Press of the 
Battalion of Engineers, in order to afford an opportunity for a thorough revi- 
sion. 

A few extra copies were struck off, and I requested authority from General 
Walker, Chief of the Bureau of Awards, to distribute them according to a spec- 
ified list. In reply he states : 

" I see no objection to the use you propose to make of the extra copies of 
the report of Group XVI. I take it for granted that none of the gentlemen on 
your list would give out a copy for printing. I hope to send the report soon to 
press for our own purposes." 

As your name was upon the list, I now have the honor to enclose a copy. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
HENRY L. ABBOT, 
Major of Engineers, & Bvt. Brig. Gen. U. S. A. 




> 



GENERAL REPORT 



TO THE 



BUREAU OF AWARDS, CENTENNIAL COMMISSION, 

UPON THE MILITARY PART 

OF THE 



INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION 



AT 



/ 



PHILADELPHIA, IN 1876. 



BY 



THE JUDGES OF GROUP XVI. 



Printed on the Press of the Engineer Battalion, U. S. A. 
Sergt. Carmichael & Pvt. Wade, Printers. 




-Xo 



%A 



INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 

Philadelphia, July 10 t h , 1 8 7 6 



Gen. FRANCIS A. WALKER, 

Chief of Bureau of Awards. 

Sir: 

The Judges of Group XVI have the honor to submit the following general 
report upon the part of the International Exhibition committed to them for examination. 
This part consists of military and sporting arms, weapons, apparatus of hunting, explo- 
sives, etc., divided into eight classes, as follows: 

1. Class 265. — Military small-arras, muskets, pistols, and magazine-guns, with 
their ammunition. 

2. Class 266. — Light artillery, compound guns, machine guns, mitrailleuses, etc. 

3. Class 267. — Heavy ordnance and its accessories. 

4. Class 268. — Knives, swords, spears, and dirks. 

5. Class 269. — Fire-arms used for sporting and hunting, also other implements 
for the same purpose. 

6. Class 270. — Traps for game, birds, vermin, etc. (For apparatus of fishing, 
see Group V. ) 

7. Class 204. — Explosive and fulminating compounds, in small quantities only, 
and under special regulations ; shown in the building only by empty cases and 
cartridges. Black powder of various grades and sizes. Nitro-glycerine, and 
the methods of using and exploding. Giant powder, dynamite, dualin, tri- 
nitro-glycerine. 

8. Class 205. — Pyrotechnics, for display, signaling, missiles, etc. 

Six Judges were charged with the examination of these and of other military arti- 
cles displayed at the Exhibition, and with reporting upon the same, viz. : 
General H. L. Abbot, U. S. Army, Chairman. 
Major W. H. Noble, Royal Artillery, Secretary. 
Colonel S. C. Lyford, IT. S. Army. " 
Captain L. F. Saldanha da Gama, Brazilian Navy. 
Captain Comdt. A. Lesne, Belgian Artillery. 
Mr. George A. Hamilton, Minnesota. 



fkrvymWi- /^~ 



In submitting a report on the work entrusted to them, the Judges of Group XVI re- 
gret that it has not been in their power to apply any practical tests to the various mili- 
tary and sporting arms, explosives, etc., that have come under their notice. 

In the absence of such tests, they do not feel justified in discussing here the relative 
merits of the different articles which have been exhibited under this Group, but propose 
to confine their observations to a general description of some of the principal objects, and 
to a brief history of the progress made in small-arms, artillery and explosives during the 
past Century. 

For this purpose, it has been thought desirable to divide the descriptive portion of 
the subject into Nationalities ; and to conclude by treating the historical portion in a gen- 
eral manner. 

UNITED STATES. 

The exhibit of the United States under Group XVI, has been exceedingly full and 
interesting. The warlike material has chiefly been displayed by the Government, but 
in the class of small-arms, both military and sporting, many private individuals have of- 
fered fine collections. 

The Government exhibit is divided between the Engineer, Ordnance, Quartermas- 
ter and Signal bureaus of the War Department, and the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy 
Department, A brief summary of the more interesting articles of each of these displays 
will be made in turn. 

The Engineer Department of the Army has exhibited, by models floating in a glass 
tank and by the actual materiel itself, General Abbot's system of defensive torpedoes 
aJopted for obstructing the channels and harbors of the United States. Interesting mod- 
els also illustrate the system of trials which have been carried out at Willet's Point, in 
experimentally developing the subject of submarine mining. 

The adopted bridge equipage of the arm}' is shown, together with beautifully ex- 
ecuted models of both reserve and advance guard trains ; also the photographic outfit used 
by the Engineer troops for copying maps in the field, and the siege and mining tools of 
the army. 

This Bureau has also exhibited models of gun-carriages devised by officers of the 
Corps of Engineers, two of which are especially interesting : one, a depressing carriage 
made by General (then Major) De Russy in 1835, contains the Moncrieff principle which 
has recently excited so much attention in Europe ; the other is the well known depressing- 
carriage of Major King, adapted to guns of large calibre. 

The details of the block houses elaborated by Colonel Merrill", used by the United 
States in defending important bridges on long lines of railway, also shown by a model, 
are worthy of careful study. 

The Ordnance Department of the Army has an exceedingly full and interesting ex- 
hibit. In the classes of heavy and field artillery the following table furnishes details of 
the more important guns, but there are many experimental and superseded patterns which 
well indicate the past and present course of investigation in the United States. 





o 


£ 1> 


*o E 


33 




-S ij 




1) 


1 


x 




o 


*t; 33 


cS 


3 


5 


E q2 


«? 


5P 


<a 


sa 




-2 




"T 22 

Si 


.5 to 


'.2 M 




CJ 








-5 


.5 -' 


Dimensions. 


g 
QQ 




c 
— 


1 a 


^1 

O 


c a 

5"S 


03 C 

gj as 
as £ 


'T.S 


CO 'O 

03 

05 C 


«-> n 




_. 


o.^5 




',ZZ • — 1 


G~ 


1 ""■ 


Is 


02 ■"* 




• ""^ 




"3 




c "n 


5 "3 


a "^ 




'T 




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E B 




T 

o 


-0 


a n 

£ a 


3 


*2 2J 


03 N 

t> a 


03 


s 


5 


Total weight, lbs. 


115100 


84 280 


30 300 


44 800 


20 000 


16160 


17120 


3 450 


820 


890 


Len'th of bore, in. 


243 


192 


155 


148 


144 


117 


35 


120 


65 


70 


Caliber, inclies. 


20 


12 


10 


9 


8.4 


8 


13 


4.5 


3 


3 


No. of grooves. 




7 


19 


36 


11 


15 




11 


7 


3 


Feet for one turn. 




70 


50 


45 


60 


40 




15 


11 


10 


Projectile, lbs. 


1080 


GOO 


400 


230 


168 


180 


200 


30 


10 


10 


Charge, lbs. 


200 


120 


70 


45 


30 


35 


20 


3.25 


1 


1 


Powder, kind. 


Hex. 


Hex. 


Hex. 


Hex. 


Hex. 


Hex. 










Muzzle veloc. ft. 


/S?'/ 




/J ST 





1406 


1411 




1280 


1232 


1232 


Prepond'rance, lbs 








100 















The Laidley gun lift, worked by hydraulic jacks acting upon levers, merits atten- 
tion as a portable and effective means of dispensing with blocking in mounting and dis- 
mounting heavy guns. The collection of artillery projectiles and fuzes, also, is especially 
full and interesting. 

In machine guns the Gatling and llotchkiss patterns, together with many now su- 
perseded, are exhibited. In military small arms the display is peculiarly interesting. 1> ■- 
ing arranged to mark the successive steps of progress since the ante-revolutionary period. 

But perhaps the most attractive part of the Ordnance exhibit consists of the gun 
making and metallic cartridge machinery in actual operation. The precision and rapid- 
ity of this work is admirable, and well maintains the reputation long held by the United 
States in this branch. 

A good collection of instruments employed in testing Ordnance, is shown in a 
small laboratory ; which is constructed upon a plan designed by Col. Laidley expressly 
with a view to a possible explosion. The building consists of an iron frame covered with 
boards arranged to yield readily to a force from within. An accident which occurred in 
1875 demonstrated the merit of this plan. The instruments are excellent in construction, 
the chief novelties being Gonoin r i Benton's thread Velocimeter, and an improvement up- 
on the Shultz Chronoscope whereby the troublesome mercury break circuit is avoided. 

The Quartermaster Department of the Army has exhibited, at work, a Warth ma- 
chine by which 500 uniform coats, or 1.000 pairs of trousers, can be cut daily; also a 
screwing machine for soling shoes ; also a fine cloth-testing machine devised by General 
Meigs. An admirable display of uniforms, harness, camp equipage and tools is also 
made. One of the wagons, still in running order, had nearly five years of active service 
during the late war, travelling over 4.000 miles with the Army of the Potomac and with 
General Sherman. The Veterinary exhibit of this department is worthy of special notice, 




yince 




i, 



a/nd 




as showing the system of shoeing in use by the Army. It contains many specimens to 
illustrate the injuries and diseases of the horse. 

The Si<ptuL Ihpnt'lnHmt \ >f thu Army h as made an interesting exhibit, especially of 
irs field telegraph train consisting of one battery, four wire, and four lance wagons capa- 
ble of transporting 50 miles of portable telegraph line ; also of its flags, heliographs, and 
other apparatus for communicating signals for an army in the field. 

The Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy has made a large and attractive display of 
material used by that branch of the service. In artillery and machine gnns, the collec- 
tion is specially designed to give an idea of the successive stages of progress daring the 
past century. The following table furnishes details respecting the larger guns. 



Dimensions 



Total weight, lbs. 
Length of bore, inches. 
Caliber, inches. 
No. of grooves. 
Feet for one turn. 

Projectile, lbs. 

Charge, lbs. 
Powder, kind. 
Muzzle velocity, ft. 



15-inch 

Smooth 

Bore. 

42 000 

146 

15 



shot 440 
shell 352 



} 



100 
35 



Cannon. 

j 1500 
> 1160 



11-inch 


9-inch 


Smooth 


Smooth 


Bore. 


Bore. 


15 700 


9 000 


131 . 


107 


11 


9 


shot 166 


shot 90 


shell 138 


shell 74 


15 


10 


Cannon. 


Cannon. 


1270 


1350 



8-inch 

Smooth 

Bore. 



6 500 
96 



shot. 64 
shell 53 

7 

Cannon. 

1330 



8-i nch 

Converted 

Hi fie. 



17 275 

126 

8 

15 

40 

shell 180 

j 20 
1 35 

Rifle. 

\ 1270 
| 1450 



100 Pdr. 

Parrott 

Rifle. 



9 700 

130 

6.4 

9 

18 

shell 96 

10 

Rifle. 

1250 



60 Pdr. 

Parrott. 

Rifle. 



5 400 
105 
5.3 

7 
12 

shell 55 

6 
Rifle. 
1200 



In projectiles*, fuzes, small-arms, and equipments generally, the Naval exhibition is 
extensive and interesting. The display of offensive Torpedoes is especially worthy of 
notice, as it includes specimens of all the varieties of that class of weapon now under trial. 
The Lay and Ericsson torpedoes, which remain under the control of the operator during 
their run ; a flsh torpedo of the Luppis-Whitehead type; the Harvey torpedo, a similar 
device constructed at Goat Island, and the Barber torpedo; and, finally, the Spar torpe- 
do as now supplied to our war vessels, are all shown. The small articles, fuzes, key 
hoards, and Farmer's dynamo-electric machine used for firing, complete this interesting 
display. 

Among the more conspicuous of the private exhibits of the United States in Group 
XVI, may be mentioned that of the South Boston Iron Company which has maintained 
its high reputation by a fine display of Held guns and projectiles. Dr. R. J. Gatlinghas 
shown several of his well known machine guns of different calibers ; and, especially, a 
new five barrelled pattern which contains several improvements, and is well worthy of 
notice. Among the small-arm exhibits, that of E. Remington and Sons is especially 
conspicuous from its size ; U+rt those .of Colt's Fire Arms Manufacturing Co., Sharps Rifle 
Co., Whitney Arms Co., Winchester Repeating Arms Co., Providence Tool Co., Smith 
and Wesson, F. Wesson, and others, well maintained the reputation of American small- 
arms. Among the novelties, may be mentioned the new magazine guns shown by the 
Evans Bifle Manufacturing Co., and by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co. 



GREAT BRITAIN 



It is much to be regretted that Great Britain lias not attempted any display of its 
implements of war. The admirable workmanship and thorough efficiency of the ord- 
nance manufactured in England, both in the Royal Arsenal and by private firms, are well 
known. The 80 ton gun now under trial at Woolwich is the largest piece of rifled ord- 
nance in the world, and the Judges have reason to believe that still larger guns are in 
course of construction at Elwicl/by the firm of Sir ¥m. Armstrong and Co. 

The display, however, by Great Britain of sporting arms is both extensive and varied. 
All the leading manufacturers are represented, and the exhibits fully maintain the char- 
acter of British sporting guns. 

Mr. James Purdev, of 314|- Oxford Street, London, shows some very fine specimens 
of his celebrated shot guns and express rifles illustrative of his snap action and double 
lock. 

Mr. Alexander Henry, of 12 South St., Andrew Street, Edinburgh, exhibits some ad- 
mirable specimens of breech loading express rifles for deer stalking and tor the destruc- 
tion of all kinds of large and dangerous game. Messrs. Lang and Sons, of 22 Coekspnr 
Street, Pall Mall, London, exhibit some very fine specimens of their well known self Click- 
ing double breech-loading spoiling guns^ 

In the British Colonial department there is a general absence of military or sporting 
arms, but an interesting collection of aboriginal weapons is exhibited by New Zealand. 

FRANCE. 

In the French department no display whatever of artillery has been made ; and the 
exhibits are confined to a few sporting arms, and a good display of cartridge cases by 
the well known house of Gevelot. 

GERMANY. 

The magnificent display, by Ilerr Krupp of Essen, of heavy and light artillery is 
unequalled by any former exhibition. 

The exhibit consists of the following articles : 

1. 35|- centimetre gun, mounted on barbette carriage and chassis. 

2. Long 24 centimetre gun, mounted on barbette carriage and chassis. 

3. 8.7 centimetre field gun with carriage and limber. 

4. Ditto with carriage only, polished. 

5. 7.5 centimetre field gun with carriage and limber. 

6. 8 centimetre mountain gun with carriage, pole and ammunition boxes. 

7. 6 centimetre mountain gun with carriage, pole, and ammunition boxes, mount- 
ed on mules. 

8. Saddles and harness for 6 centimetre mountain guns. 

9. A collection of projectiles. 

The following table gives the weights and dimensions of the principal parts. 




'M sJt&rff, 








35.5 cm. 


24 cm. 


8.7 cm. 


7.5 cm. 


8 cm. 


6 cm.- 


Total weight, lbs. 


126 766 


23 700 


1069 


661 


227 


198 


Length of bore, inches. 


270.2 


177.6 


73.9 


70.7 


33.3 


34.6 


Caliber, inches. 


14 


9.45 


3.42 


2.95 


3.15 


2.36 


No. of grooves. 


80 


54 


24 


24 


18 


18 


Weight of projectile, lbs. 


1125 


342 


13.7 


9.3 


8.8 


4.4 


Weight of charge, lbs. 


275 


84 


3.3 


2.2 


0.9 


0.4 


Muzzle velocity, ft. 


1591 


1542 


1558 


1496 


952 


919 



RUSSIA. 

The Russian Government lias exhibited an interesting and varied assortment of mu- 
nitions of war, well selected to illustrate the excellent character of the work done in the 
Arsenals. 

The small-arms and metallic cartridge display shows a perfection of workmanship 
which leaves nothing to be desired. The parts of the muskets made at different arsenals 
are interchangeable ; and the gauges used in testing are marvels of mechanical accuracy. 
The greatest novelty is the fortress rifle devised by Major-General Baron Halm, and adop- 
ted by the Russian War Office. It is O.S-inches in caliber, is loaded at the breech, and 
fires steel or cast iron bullets lead coated. The recoil is taken up partly by a projection 
which rests over a sand bag on the parapet, and partly by a moveable spring-supported 
butt plate. The charge is about an ounce, or one-fifth the weight of the bullet ; which is 
det-iirned to pierce the Sap roller or iron shield protecting the head of a Sap. The swords 
of the army are also worthy of commendation. 

In artillery, the army and navy both contribute specimens ; of which the chief de- 
tails are given in the following table. 



Dimensions. 



Total weight, lbs. 
Length of bore, in. 
Caliber, inches. 
No. of grooves, 
Projectile, lbs. 
Charge, lbs. 
Powder, kind. 
Muzzle velocity, ft. 



a a 

-3.2 
> 



B3 376 

136 

9 

32 

270 

47 

Prism. 

1341 



to bt 

— a 



8 960 

122 

6 

24 

81 

18 

Prism. 

1335 



^ * 



784 
60 

3.42 
12 
12 
1.3 

1004 






us 



1097 

67 

3.42 

8 

12 
4 
Coarse. 
1537 



J 3 
u«a 



< % 




224 

24 

3 

12 

8.8 

0.75 

Fine. 

698 



.53 



8 220 

54' 

8 

30 

176 

15.3 

Prism. 

826 



£ 5 
. o 

< 



3 600 

40 

6 

24 

81 

6.3 

Fine. 

800 



-z 



§ p . 

s s 

lag 

.- _ CD 



-V ' 






1318 

3.42 

12 

13.1 

5.0 

Coarse. 

1676 



This ordnance is all breech-lo&dirig, a single cvlindro prismatic wedge and Broad- 
well ring being used for all but the naval ± pdr. gun, which has a French block. The 
experimental -f pdr. steel gun shown from the Perm works, is closed upon the Krupp 
system. 

The greatest novelty in this ordnance exhibit is the carriage fur the new model 
chill-cast and mandrel-hardened bronze ± pdr. gnu. This carriage, devised by Col. Eu- 
gelhardi, is of iron and is provided with a cork buffer for partially taking up the recoil. 
It has been severely tested, with good results, and will probably be adopted in the Rus- 
sian service. The rifled niortars are also interesting. They were cast in a metallic mould 
under pressure, by th ■ system of Col. Lavroff. The larger one has been fired 300 times 
with 17 lbs. of prismatic powder, giving a pressure of 1 350 atmospheres, and 100 times 
with 17 lbs. of artillery powder, giving a pressure of 2 000 atmospheres. The grooves 
hardly show appreciable wear. The portable travelling crane for moving ordnance stores 
exhibited by Mr. Wonlaflarsky is also worthy of special notice ; as is also the fine ex- 
hibit of artillery harness. The Perm Works, beside the experimental 4 pdr. steel gun, 
show interesting models of a 20-inch smooth bore gun, and of a 9-inch breech-loading 
hooped steel rifle gun, closed upon the French block system. 

The Engineer Department displays a very beautiful model of the Russian ponton 
train, after the Birago pattern ; also numerous elaborate drawings of barrack structures, 
and of the siege of Sevastopol ; also, a model of an iron shield as used at the fortress of 
Cronstadt ; also, the siege and mining tools of the army. 

SPAIN. 

The Spanish War Office has made a very attractive exhibit of war materials. 

The magnificent models of fortresses and barracks, contributed by the Engineer De- 
partment, are objects of general as well as of professional interest; while the models of 
the ponton train, and. especially, of the Birago trestles packed on the backs of mules for 
mountain warfare, excite deserved notice. 

In artillery, the details of the mountain gun are especially interesting. It is of iron 
3.24 inches in caliber, rifled on the French system, and with the French breech closing 
mechanism. The carriage is of iron. The pack saddles for its transportation are pecul- 
iar in construction. The models of a 9.7 inch rifled sea coast gun, of the field artillery 
equipage, and of sling carts of various patterns, are beautifully executed. 

The exhibition of small-arms nsed in the Spanish service, and, especially, of the well 
known Toledo sword blades, att/racts much attention. The aboriginal arms from the 
Philippine Islands are also shown. 

SWEDEN. 

The Swedish Government exhibit possesses much interest ; and is supplemented by 
some specimens of chilled iron shot, of admirable quality, from the private establishments 
of Carl Ekman and A. de Mare, and by a fine diplayof Damascus sword blades from the 
Eskilstuna Iron Manufacturing Co. . ^ 

The models of the military bridge equipage devised by Capt. Y. Norrman of the 
Swedish Engineers, and exhibited by the Government, possess novelty — especially in the 
peculiar arrangement of the king-bolt of the wagon, by which the front axle may be 
traversed under the body without requiring an undue reduction in the size of the wheels 



d, 




or building up of the side vails. The self acting break is also worthy of notice- 
In small-arms, a fine exhibit showing the details of manufacture of the Government 
rifle at the Royal Factory at Karl Gfustafs Stad, has been made. 

In artillery, some admirable steel hoops for large rifles were displayed by the Motala 
Mechanical Works Co. ; and specimen carriages of a field artillery train complete, were 
shown by the Government. The guns, of cast iron banded with steel, exhibit an endur- 
ance worthy of the reputation of the Swedish ores. The traces are made of double rope, 
to serve as drag ropes in case the battery be crippled by the loss of its horses. 

In closing our remarks upon the Swedish War Exhibit, it 'may be well to refer to 
the admirable lay figures used to display the uniforms of the different Corps. They were 
without a rival in the Exhibition, and in the crowd might easily be mistaken for living 

BELGIUM. 

The exhibition made by Belgium in this Group consists almost exclusively of small- 
anus, shown by private firms. The excellence and cheapness of the guii barrels man- 
ufactured by the firms of Liege are well" known, and have been fully acknowledged at all 
former Exhibitions. On this occasion, the duty of supporting their country in this Nation- 
al industry has been undertaken mainly by the firms of Mairlot and Heuse, and Heuse, 
Lenioine and Cie. 

SWITZERLAND. 

The Swiss exhibit under Group XYI, is confined to small-arms displayed by private 
parties; especially by the Swiss Industrial Company, which shows samples of the Yet- 
terli and other breech-loading and magazine guns. 

HOLLAND. 

The Netherland exhibit is restricted to military small-arms and swords from the 
Government manufactory at Delft, and to a magnificent collection of East Indian weap- 
ons displayed by the Colonial department. 

TURKEY. 

The only weapons in the Turkish section consist of a fine exhibit of rifles, accoutre- 
ments, and sabres made at the Imperial Arms Factory of Tophane ; and some highly or- 
namented pistol holsters and horse equipments from private parties. 

EGYPT. 

The Government of Egypt has displayed some interesting weapons, more particular- 
ly samples of the magnificent antique damascus blades so celebrated in history, and some 
richly ornamented dromedary, horse, and donkey saddles and equipments. Also, some 
modern weapons used in desert warfare. The contributions from the National Museum 
of Cairo are especially attractive. 

BRAZIL. 

The exhibition of war material from Brazil, was almost exclusively made by the 
Government, and shows a degree of mechanical skill and progress in that country not 
generally suspected. 



A model of one of the 300 pounder Whitworth rifles now manufactured at the Rio 
Janeiro Arms Arsenal is beautifully made, and with three smooth bore mortars and three 
muzzle loading field guns rifled on the French system, gives a good idea of the ordnance 
of Brazil. 

In small-arms, and in projectiles for cannon, a fine display is made ; also in fuzes and 
metallic cartridges manufactured at the Pyrotechnic Laboratory of Campinho. 

TUNIS. 

The display from Tunis is of great historical interest, consisting of antique guns and 
pistols, richly inlaid, and of magnificent damascus swords some of which probably date 
from the time of the Crusades. Gorgeously embroidered horse and mule equipments 
add to the distinctive character of the exhibit. 

JAPAK 

The exhibit from Japan under Group XYI is made entirely by private parties, and 
consists of swords, armor, bows and arrows, and other weapons in use before the nation 
opened her ports to foreigners. The display has much popular interest. 



MILITAKY SMALL- A RMS. 

To trace in detail the development and perfection of military small-arms during^the 
past one hundred years, in the various countries represented at this Exhibition, and. by 
means of descriptions and statistics, to give the successive steps of improvement that have 
led to present stages of efficiency in each, would, if skillfully and impartially done, afford 
a valuable ""finnrn 1 to the present as well as a valuable record for succeeding World's 
Fairs, where the same progressive field of human ingenuity shall be again opened to in- 
vestigation. The preparation of a memoir of so comprehensive a character could not, 
however, be undertaken and completed in the short space alloted to this Exhibition ; as 
the success of any effort of this kind would depend upon the previous collection, in each 
of the countries, of authentic detailed information with the view of putting the mass in- 
to shape for international dissemination. In the absence, therefore, of such general pre- 
paration at this Exhibition, only a cursory review of the history of military firearms in 
this country can be attempted. 

The manufacture of military arms was carried on with no only to a very limited ex- 
tent previous to the year 1795, — gun-making, like all cotemporaneous industries, being 
then in its infancy. Small-arms for the service of »«* troops were in those times princi- 
pally of foreign manufacture. During the troublous period succeeding the Revolution, 
great anxiety was felt on the subject of properly maintaining the country in a condition 
of defense ; and in 1794, Congress laid an embargo upon the exportation of any '"can- 
non, muskets, pistols, bayonets, swords, cutlasses, musket-balls, lead, bombs, grenades, 
gunpowder, sulphur, or saltpetre," and encouraged the importation of all such materials 
by admitting them free of duty. These provisions were continued for several years, and 
in the meantime the initial steps were taken by the Government for the establishment of 
national armories at Springfield, Mass., and Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 

In 1795 the Secretary of War reported to Congress that the armorers engaged at the 



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10 




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government establishment at Springfield, Mass., in repairing arms and preparing to man- 
ufacture the most essential parts of the musket, had made some specimens equal in qual- 
ity to the manufactures of any country in the world. In order to foster the art, in the in- 
terest of national security, contracts with private arms manufacturers to the extent of 
7000 muskets were given out by the Government in that year. The muskets so manufac- 
tured were after the model of the French arms, which composed by far the greatest part 
of those in the national storehouses at the close of the Revolutionary War. The oldest 
pattern of the French musket then known was the one of 1746. Successive alterations 
and improvements were made to this model in 1754 and 1763; and, finally, in 1776 or 1777 
the French government decided on a model which stood its ground for a period of nearly 
40 years, saving only some trifling modifications introduced during the period of the 
French Revolution. This model of 1777, embodying the gradual improvements sug- 
gested by the experience of above a hundred years in the martial nation of France, 
was in those times considered to be exempt from every essential defect, and, doubtless, 
not to be susceptible of any decided improvement. 

The muskets made at mw national armories have, from the foundation of those in- 
stitutions to the adoption of the present breech-loading rifle, been essentially of French 
model, with only such minor modifications as the progress of the arts and the experience 
of <wh» service had demonstrated to be desirable. The arms furnished by the French gov- 
ernment to the United States during the war with Great Britain in 1812-14 were prin- 
cipally of the old model of 1763, commonly known by the name of the u Charleville" 
musket. This musket, indeed, served generally as a pattern in this country in the early 
manufactures of military arms. 

In the interest of public policy, the National Government early took under its care 
the private arms manufacturers of the country, and, by advancing funds to them and let- 
ting of contracts for military arms, sought to build up these manufactories as places of 
reliance in case of national danger. It was deemed important, in order to secure the serv- 
ices of these manufacturers when they might be of the highest necessity, to continue in 
times of peace to furnish them employment. Many of the individuals of small property 
who engaged in these contracts were absolutely ruined thereby ; and the difficulties were 
so much greater than had been apprehended, that it proved in general a losing business to 
those concerned. Some of them, however, profited by the assistance rendered them, and 
in the absence of workmen who had been regularly brought up to the trade of guu-mak- 
ing, original tools and modes of executing various parts of the work were contrived, 
adapted to the inexperience of the hands, and calculated to obviate the necessity of em- 
ploying exclusively men who had been bred to the trade. Some of these inventions 
proved to be valuable improvements in the art, and were gradually disseminated and 
adopted into general use. In order to secure to the Government workshops the highest 
class of skilled workmen, an act was passed by Congress in 1S00 prohibiting, under pen- 
alty of fine and imprisonment-enticing away from the national armories, or employing 
any workmen under engagements at those places. To the same end, also, these workmen 
were exempted by the same act from all military and jury duty during their employment. 

The want of competent skilled labor in the various industrial arts in this country/ 
gave rise, as above intimated, to great activity and progress in the adaptation of machin- 
ery to the performance of mechanical operations and processes. The toilsome labors of 



11 

hand production which, up to the beginning of the present century, had been the almost 
universal practice, began within the first quarter of the century to give way steadily to 
the more improved methods of manipulation by machinery. The mysteries which there- 
tofore had surrounded many of the arts, and which required years of study and labor to 
acquire, began to be dispelled ; the ingenuity of the intelligent artisan, aided by the wis- 
dom of the scientist and experimentalist, began its inroads upon previous methods and 
processes, and in many instances what had theretofore constituted a complete '* trade " 
eventually became broken up into numerous specialties, each complete in itself but all 
subordinate to the general calling. This radical division of labor in what had consti- 
tuted particular trades, gave enlarged scope to the inventor; and thenceforward the gen- 
eral improvement of any established art became dependent entirely upon the direct im- 
provements in its separate subordinate branches. Under «***■ laws for the encouragement 
and promotion of the useful arts, inventors acquired an absolute property in all inven- 
tions made by them, and hence all important improvements became at once matters of 
pecuniary value to the holders. A constant emulation was thereby engendered and sus- 
tained in every branch of mechanical labor. 

The art of gun__making- kept steady pace with the progress of the times. One of 
the earliest and most important sets of labor-saving machinery introduced in the nation- 
al armories was the invention of Thomas Blanchard, of Millbury, Mass. His lathe for 
turning irregular forms, which was adapted to the turning of gun-stocks, was invented 
and matured at his own shop in Millbury ; and was first built and put in operation at the 
Harper's Ferry Armory in 1819, and subsequently at the Springfield Armory in the fall 
and winter of the same year. 

Numerous other machines were devised and perfected by this inventor, who was 
thereafter employed to erect his machinery at the national armories; and on Feb. 7, 1827, 
he formally relinquished to the United States, for a valuable consideration, all the rights, 
interests and privileges which he had in any of the following machines then or thereto- 
fore in use at either of the armories: a machine for sawing off the stock to its proper 
length ; one for facing the stock and sawing it lengthwise ; one for turning the stock ; one 
for boring the stock for the barrel ; one for milling the bed for the breech of the barrel 
and the breech-pin; one for cutting the bed for the tang of the breech-plate; one tor 
boring the holes for the breech-plate screws; one for gauging the barrel ; one for fitting 
the tang of the breech-pin; one for forming the concave for the upper band ; one for 
dressing the stock and between the bands; one for forming the bed for the interior of 
the lock ; one for boring the holes for the sides and tang-pin ; one for turning the barrel, 
and the flats and ovals on the breech of the barrel. This array of machines shows to 
what extent labor-saving machinery had been introduced in the preparation of gun-stocks 
at the national armories at this early date. 

About the year 1819, another ingenious inventor, John H. Hall, was employed to 
proceed to Harper's Ferry Armory to erect machinery for the manufacture of a breech- 
loading arm of his invention. The arm was invented in 1811, and the machinery for its 
construction was devised by him after he went to Harper's Ferry. The nature of this 
machinery can best be understood from the following extract from an official report made 




12 




Uwsdcdl s'tattk, 



by tin.' Colonel of Ordnance to the Secretary of War in January, 1827/ 

"It is but an act of justice to Mr. Hall, the inventor, to state, that during the whole 
of- this period he has devoted himself, with the greatest zeal and assiduity to the perfect- 
ing of this arm, and of the means for fabricating it, and that, in both, he has been emi- 
nent Iv successful ; an<l to him is due the credit of effecting so great an improvement in 
fire arms." 

'•The machinery used in the fabrication of these rifles has been constructed upon a 
new and improved plan, by which a very important improvement in the fabrication of 
firejiinns has been effected. By the use of this machinery, each of the various separate 
parts, which when united formaf one arm, are constructed in that perfectly accurate and 
uniform manner, that every one of the parts of one arm will fit, exactly, the correspond- 
ing parts of any other arm of similar model." 

"This degree of perfection in the fabrication of small-arms, has ever been consider- 
ed an object of the highest importance in all national armories, and has been frequently 
attempted in the armories of Europe, but hitherto without success, and the attempt has 
been generally abandoned from the belief that the object was unattainable." 

"The machinery constructed for and used in fabricating the Hall's rifles, executes 
the work with such exactness that the component parts of one hundred rifles made some 
years past, have been joined to other parts made recently, without the least difficulty, all 
the parts fitting as exactly as if each had been separately adjusted to the particular rifle 
thus formed from the scattered members." 

This great uniformity of parts was secured by the use of standard metal gauges for 
each component, whereby the utmost precision was attained through the medium of rigid 
inspections kept up during the progress of the work. The manufacture of Hall's breech- 
loading arms. continued, under -his supervision, at Harper's Ferry until 1844, when, he 
having died, and a growing sentiment having arisen among the authorities against the use 
of breech loading arms, the manufacture entirely ceased. The total number made at 
Harper's Ferry from 1820 to 1844, was about 25,900. There were furnished by outside 
contractors in the same period about 23,700 additional. There were still 19,800 of these 
arms on hand, in the arsenals and armories in I860, just previous to the late war. 

Hall's arms, although the first breech-loading arms which, received any considerable 
degree of government patronage in tJna country , never enjoyed an unqualified reputa- 
tion for efficiency in the army. It is extremely doubtful if any considerable number of 
them were used in the war with Mexico. 

The result accomplished by "him in his machinery, however, was a matter of very 
great importance. A gradual re-organization of the machinery at the two national arm- 
ories was begun as early as 1S39, under the supervision of the master armorers at those 
places, who were experienced practical mechanics, and by the year 1S50 the manufac- 
tures at both places were characterized by entire interchangeability. These establishments 
had been conducted by civil superintendents from their foundation until the year 1842, when 
the control was transferred to the military supervision of the Ordnance Department of 
the Army. The supervision of the Ordnance Department was superseded by civil su- 
perintendents in 1853, who were again supplanted in 1861 by the Ordnance Department, 
since which time the affairs at the national armories have been administered by that De- 
partment. 



13 

The armory at Harper's Ferry was destroyed by rebel troops. in L861, and has not 
since been rebuilt 

With the exception of Hull's arms, and a few Jenks' carbines, all military fife arms 
(muskets, rifles and carbines) made previous to 1840 were muzzle-loaders; and the ig- 
nition was by means of the old flint-lock. The first productions of percussion arms at the 
armories was in 18-14. Up to that date there had been manufactured at these two places 
from their institution, an aggregate of 758,000 flint-lock muskets alone, besides rifles and 
pistols. Flint-locks were discarded in the manufactories after the year 1844, and subse- 
quently large quantities of the flint-lock arms on hand were transformed to use the per- 
cussion principle. 

In 18-12 rifling of muskets was begun at the armories and, in 1855, a model rifled- 
musket was adopted and manufactured by the United States in large quantities and be- 
came eventually the infantry arm of the great war of the rebellion, 1861-1865. 

A general distrust of breech-loading arms of all classes, in the then state of the art, 
was entertained by the military authorities from a period anterior to the dissolution of the 
Hall's factory in 1S44, and continued down to the period of the War of the Rebellion. 
A Board of Ordnance Officers having under consideration the subject of Coljt's and Jenks 1 
carbines in 1816 — these arms having been brought to the attention of the War Depart- 
ment in 1838 and 1839 and trials in the field having'in the meantime been made with 
them — reported as follows : 

"After duly considering the subject, the Board have the honor to report, that there 
have been innumerable trials made of arms loading at the breech. The principal advan- 
tages of these kinds of arms are, a greater and more exact range, with less recoil. This 
results from their being fired with a ball which fits exactly, or slug, which allows the 
charge to be reduced. It is necessary to add that, when the mechanism is well contrived, 
they may be handled with ease and quickness — an advantage of some importance, but 
often greatly exaggerated. Unfortunately, these advantages appear difficult to obtain 
with sufficient solidity, simplicity, and durability. 

"The first trials of these arms were anterior to the flint-lock. The application of this 
principle has been made in various ways, but the almost, innumerable varieties may be 
classed under three heads : 

1st. Those with an opening on the top of the barrel. 

2nd. Those with an opening at the rear end of the barrel. 

3rd. Those in which the chamber is raised or moved from the line of the barrel, so 
as to allow the introduction of the charge. 

"The same general objections have been found to exist to all these methods, viz. : 
Want of solidity of the parts most exposed to the action of the charge; the liability of 
the movable parts to become unserviceable by their getting fast from rust or dirt depos- 
ited at each discharge ; and the escape of the gas through the joints or junctions of the 
different parts. The defects inherent to this method of loading have been such that. 
notwithstanding the repeated trials made with it for centuries, and the many ingenious 
and well-executed contrivances offered of late years, of which those of Hall, Colt and 
Jenks, in this country, deserve mention, this method has not been adopted for arming 
troops in any country, except partially in this — nor has it been brought into general use 



sfampiMkate- 





11 

for other purposes. In France there are a great variety deposited in the Musee d'Artil- 
lerie, among others the Amusette of Marechal Saxe, the principle of which is very simi- 
lar to the one now under discussion. The authority of Marechal Saxe in all that related 
to war caused the fabrication of a number of these arms. The dragoons of his regiment 
were armed with a carbine on the same principle, and the Marine received a great num- 
ber in their arsenals. Experiments on a large scale were unfavorable, and their use was 
abandoned." 

"In 1831, a "fusil de rampart" (wall piece), loading at the breech, was adopted in 
France, but when tried more extensively it was found not to answer, and has also been 
abandoned. Trials made of late years to adapt a carbine of this kind for the cavalry, 
have not proved favorable. Such being the facts, this Board charged with the duty of 
prescribing the kind and quality of arms to be provided for our troops, must be thoroughly 
satisfied that an arm loading at the breech is free from the defects which have heretofore 
prevented their general use, before they can recommend to the War Department to go to 
the expense of making so great a change in our arms." 

In November, 1850, an Ordnance Board, having six varieties of breech-loading arms 
under trial at Washington, D. C, recommended Sharps' rifle for trial with the troops, and 
some carbines of this pattern were purchased and placed in the hands of mounted men 
for the purpose ; but in July, 1854, the matter being again before an Ordnance Board, 
they declined to propose any further action on the subject until a decisive report should 
be received as to the result of the trials in service. 

By the act approved August 5, 1851, making appropriations for the support of the 
Army for the year ending 30th June, 1855, the sum of $90,000 was appropriated "for the 
purchase of the best breech-loading rifles, in the opinion ofthe Secretary of War, for the 
use of the United States army ; provided the Secretary of War, after a fair practical test 
thereof shall deem the purchase advisable and proper." 

Inventors and manufacturers were therefore invited by advertisement in September, 
1851, to send in specimens of such arms ; and in December, 1851, trials took place at 
Washington, D. O, resulting in the recommendation by the Board that Sharps' and 
Symme\ arms, presented, be subjected to trial in the hands of troops, and that such trial 
arms be adapted to the service of cavalry. To these were added the arms presented by 
Mr. Green. The arming of infantry troops with any of the systems of breech-loading 
rifles then extant was not favored by the War Department authorities during this period, 
and very little of the appropriation for the "purchase of breech-loading rifles" was spent 
during the term of the then Secretary of War. 

Indeed, the military authorities had in 1855 decided upon adopting, for use in the 
infantry brancli of service, the muzzle-loading percussion arm widely known as the 
Springfield rifled musket of 1855, using elongated expanding ball-cartridges of caliber 
58 ; and the manufacture of these arms in great quantities was immediately begun by the 
Government. The sentiment of the then Secretary of War on the subject of breech-load- 
ers for infantry service may be gathered from the following extract from a speech of his 
in the Senate, made after he had retired from the Secretaryship. 

"The infantry-man," says he, "who has space enough, and is in proper position to 
load his piece at the muzzle, I think, is better served with a muzzle-loading piece than a 



breech-loading piece. When breech-loading was first introduced, the great defect in arms 
was the difficulty of putting down the ball so as to obtain all the. force of the powder to 
propel it. It was necessary it should be rammed home with great force. Then breech- 
loading had its value in rapidity of fire, or, at any rate, in putting the ball in if intend- 
ed to have rapid firing, so that it should be tight in passing out. All that has been su- 
perseded by the introduction of the expanding ball, which is put in loose in the muzzle, 
rammed home without delay, expanded by the powder the moment it is ignited, and pas- 
ses out of the piece tight. There is, therefore, no advantage to the footman in loading a 
piece at the breech. * * * * I object to any alteration upon any new plan of breech-load- 
ing of those arms which we have and which we know to be good." 

The majority of all the inventions in breech-loading arms put forward previous to 
1857,. were found to be objectionable after continuous firing, there being no means of pre- 
venting the accumulation of residuum in the joints, orof overcoming the liability to failure 
from the rusting of the joint under exposure. A single particle of rust or residuum in 
the joint, during the service of the gun, opened a way to the wearing action of the gas. 
producing permanent injury to the piece. Much uncertainty of fire was also experienced 
in the various methods of priming of that day. In many specimens, the small vent holes 
afforded favorable depositories for residuum, rust, or moisture— which operate with equal 
effect to render the arm for the time being ineffectual or useless. The difficulties of the 
breech-loading problem were not fully overcome until the invention of self-primed ex- 
panding metallic cartridges. Hitherto, efforts to produce a perfect gas check were main- 
ly confined to the gun itself, independent of the cartridge — the loose ammunition, or pa- 
per or linen cartridges of the period, not affording any assistance to that end ; but the in- 
troduction of the metallic cartridge case, of copper or other expansible metal, as a means 
of closing the joint by lateral expansion under the force of the explosion, and the renewal 
of these cases at each discharge, effected a complete revolution in the production of breech- 
loading arms — giving rise to a great many varieties of weapons owing their excellence, 
if not their origin, to the merits of this peculiar ammunition, and in time superseding 
alto«'ether the other methods of rendering; arms breech-loadino- The earliest varieties of 
metallic cartridges, as constructed in diic oomitry. had for their primary object the closure 
of the breech joint. Some were provided with a flange at the base to facilitate ready 
withdrawal from the gun after discharge, and nil relied upon the old method of ignition 
by percussion caps through the medium of the tire-duct as in the old arms; but the gen- 
eration of ignition at or within the base of the cartridge case itself, was soon hit upon as 
avoiding in a great measure the contingencies of failure, and the cartridge became the 
subject of improvement in that respect also. 

The advocates of breech-loading arms found much more liberal encouragement in 
the action of the succeeding Secretary of War. whose term began in 1857. Experiment 
were almost immediately inaugurated by his direction, at the government workshops, 
to test the merits of the more promising systems of breech-loaders presented to his no- 
tice ; and in 1858 he was active in urging before Congress that an appropriation should 
be made for the purchase of breech-loading carbines for the cavalry service, and also for 
the alteration of old arms then in the arsenals so as to make them breech-loading arms 
for the use of infantry soldiers. It was this last proposition which was so strongly op- 
posed by his immediate predecessor, who was then a Senator in Congress, and from one 



4fc #™&<#^/ 



16 

of whose speeches the above quotation has been made. The appropriations were, how- 
ever, finally granted ; and, from 1858 to 1861, continuous experiments were in progress at 
the national armories, and before Boards of officers, in the examination and trial of breech- 
loading arms. These experiments, and the hope of ultimately gaining the exclusive 
monopoly of government patronage, had the effect of stimulating the ingenuity of in- 
ventors in the production of arms ; and although these measures of the Secretary of War 
were not during his term crowned with entire success, his faith in the value of breech- 
loading arms as a military armament was in no wise diminished. In his annual report 
of 1859, he says : " Under the appropriation heretofore made by Congress to encourage 
experiments in breech-loading arms, very important results have been arrived at. The 
ingenuity and invention displayed upon the subject are truly surprising, and it is risking 
little to say that the arm has been nearly, if not entirely perfected by several of these 
plans. These arms commend themselves very strongly for their great range and accuracy 
of fire at long distances, for the rapidity with which they can be fired, and their exemp- 
tion from injury by exposure to long continued rains. With the best breech-loading arm, 
one skillful man would be equal to two, probably three, armed with the ordinary muzzle- 
loading gun. True policy requires that steps should be taken to introduce those arms 
gradually into our service, and to this end preparations ought to be made for their man- 
ufacture in the public arsenals." 

And in his annual report for 1860, he says: "Very frequent and numerous experi- 
ments have been made, under my direction, of. breech-loading arms ; and inventions for 
this purpose are wonderfully numerous. Many have been rejected, but some plans for 
breech-loading have been approved, after very numerous experiments, and are now con- 
ceded by all who are familiar with them, and capable of judging, to be by far the most 
efficient arm ever put into the hands of intelligent men. Immediately, steps ought to be 
taken to arm all our light troops with the most improved of these arms. 

"I hold it to be an inhuman' economy which sends a soldier into the field, where his 
life is constantly in danger, without furnishing him with the best (not the most expensive) 
arms that are or can be made. It is no answer to say that our troops cannot be taught 
to use with skill this character of arm as well as another. It is the practice and drill that 
make the soldier expert in the use of his arm, and whilst he may attain to great skill with 
a good weapon he certainly never can do so with an indifferent one. 

"I think it may be fairly asserted now, that the highest efficiency of a body of men 
with firearms can only be secured by putting in their hands the best breech-loading arm. 
The long habit of using muzzle-loading arms will resist what seems to be so great an in- 
novation, and ignorance may condemn ; but as certainly as the percussion cap has super- 
seded the flint and steel, so surely will the breech-loading gun drive out of use those that 
load at the muzzle. For cavalry the revolver and breech-loader will supersede the sabre." 

The following list shows the purchases made by the Government of breech-loading 
arms during the nine years preceding the War, being the period when inventive ingenu- 
ity in that direction began first to be spurred by Congressional legislation. It was dur- 
ing this period that the foundation was laid for the armament of the cavalry with the 
improved breech-loading arms which rendered that branch of service so efficient during 
the late war of the Rebellion : 



6 
Q 



17 

1852/— 200 Sharps' carbines. 6 

1S51/— 200 Greene's carbines. @ 

1855/^100 Sharps' ; 200 Syn lines 1 and 170 Merrill's carbines. 

1856/ — 200 Burnside's and 10 Schroeder's carbines. 

1857/— 100 Colt's rifles; 200 Sharps'; 100 Greene's and 50 Joslyns' carbines; and ® 

100 Maynard's and 1100 Sharps' rifles. 

1S58/— 3010 Sharps' and 691 Burnside's carbines ; and 20 Colt's rifles. 

1859/— 2500 Sharps', 100 Merrill's and 64 Colt's carbines ; and 100 Merrill muskets ; 
100 Merrill rifles ; and 288 Colt's rifles. 

1860/— 1000 Joslyns' and 300 Smith's carbines. 

Besides these, the Government purchased the right to make or alter from old arms the 
following at the Government workshops, viz : 

1858/ — Right to alter 2000 muskets or rifles according to plan of George W. Morse ; 

right to alter same number of muskets and rifles on plan of W. Mont Storm. 

1860/ — Right to manufacture 3000 carbines, and metallic cartridge cases for same, on O 

patents of George W. Morse. 

The manufacture of the standard muzzle-loading rifled-musket of the model of 1S55 
was steadily in progress at the national armories at the breaking out of the war of the 
Rebellion in 1861 ; and the productive energy of the remaining establishment, (the Har- 
per's Ferry armory having been destroyed in the first months of the war) was taxed to its 
utmost to supply this standard rirled-musket to meet the increasing wants of the service. 
In the face of open hostilities and the extraordinary demands resulting therefrom, there 
was left no time for continuing experiments with uuperfected systems of breech-loading 
for infantry .service, nor to contrive and construct new and untried machinery for the pro- 
duction of arms of that character. These experiments were, therefore, discontinued by the 
Government ; but they were industriously pursued by private enterprise during the whole 
period of the war, resulting in the production of many ingenious weapons which were 
largely patronized by the Government for use in the cavalry service. The demand for 
the regulation muzzle-loading arms made by the Government for the infantry service, be- 
came so great shortly after the war opened, that private contractors had to be called in to 
duplicate the machinery and aid in the enormous production imperatively needed. The 
success attained by the use of breech-loaders in the cavalry service, however, had engen- 
dered a very strong sentiment by the close of the year 1863, in favor of the introduction 
of breech-loaders among the infantry regiments. It was not until the fall of 1861, how- 
ever, that the Government was in a condition to initiate measures looking to a change of 
its manufactures. The most economical plan then deemed expedient (as previously con- 
sidered in 1858) was the alteration of the stock of muzzle-loaders then on hand to breech- 
loading arms. In October, 1861, the Chief of Ordnance of the Army reported to Con- / / . ,/ / /- 
gress^as follows : Wmio/v /he ■W'yWaty. <rf- tP& 

"The use of breech-loading arms in our service has, with few exceptions, been con- u " 

fined to mounted troops. As far as our limited experience goes, it indicates the advis- 
ability of extending this armament to our infantry also ; and this experience is corrobo- 
rated by that of several foreign nations, into the military service of which the breech-load- 
er has been or is about to be introduced as the exclusive fire-arm for both cavalry and in- 



18 

■fan try. It is, therefore, intended "to make this change of manufacture at our national 
armories as soon as the best model for a breech-loading arm can be established by full and 
thorough tests and trials, and the requisite modifications of the present machinery for fab- 
ricating that model can be made. 

"The alteration of our present model of muzzle-loading arms, is also a very desirable 
measure, both on account of economy and improvement in the character of these arms. 
It is thought that they can be altered at a moderate cost, and in a short time, to very ef- 
ficient breech-loading arms. The details for effecting both these measures will receive 
the early attention of this Bureau." 

A Board of officers was convened at Springfield armory in January, 1865, to "exam- 
ine, test, and recommend for adoption a suitable breech-loader for muskets and carbines, 
and a repeater or magazine-carbine." Experiments had been in progress at the armory 
by the master armorer since the fall of 1864, in perfecting a system of altering the muz- 
zle-loading arms on hand in accordance with a plan that had been suggested by an em- 
C, pl°y£ °f the armory during the progress of the experiments at that J&'ost in 1858. The 

Board examined and tested a considerable number of specimens of breech-loading arms, 
and, in April 1865, recommended the adoption of the "Peabody" rifle, and expressed the 
opinion that Spencer's magazine-carbine combined more advantages than any other mag- 
azine arm presented. The recommendation of the Peabody rifle was not adopted by the 
War Department, and the manufacture of the Joslyn breech-loading rifle was undertaken 
at the armory, about 3000 of them being made in 1865; but reports from the field being 
very unfavorable to this arm, its manufacture was discontinued, and measures were taken 
in July of that year for the alteration of 5000 arms in accordance with the plan that had 
been the subject of experiment by the master armorer. One hundred stands of these 
arms were issued to troops by the end of March, 1866, and a Board of officers having in 
the meantime been assembled at Washington, D. C, on the subject of altering old arms 
to breech-loaders, specimens of these arms were laid before them. The Board examined 
and tested a considerable number of specimens of arms, and selecting preliminarily the 
Berdan, Remington, Richardson, and master armorer's plans, they finally agreed upon the 
Berdan plan as the best. 

The War Department, however, selected the Berdan, Yates, Remington, Roberts, 
and master armorer's plan for competitive trial in service, but this recommendation was 
never carried out. In July of that year orders were given for the immediate conversion 
of 25,000 muzzle-loaders to breech-loaders, and the master armorer's plan (called Allin 
plan) was adopted for these arms. Orders were at the same time given for the manufac- 
ture of metallic centre primed cartridges for these arms at the Frankford Arsenal, Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. 

The preparation of metallic ammunition suitable for these military arms, involved 
the institution of extensive experiments at the Springfield armory and this latter ^rost. 
Not only were / proper form of construction of the cartridge case itself and the proper 
method of priming to be selected, but the proper machinery also had to be selected and 
adapted to the production, in large quantities, of the adopted cartridge. The manufac- 
^Prt ilniu/f /ortt<u4> / ture °f me tallic cartridges was a known branch of industry in thio . oonntpy at the time, 

the production of ammunition of this character having been undertaken by private en- 




19 

terprise anterior to the war of the Rebellion— indeed much of it had been used in that 
war. Large manufactories were in operation in Massachusetts and Connecticut, as early 
as 1863. Ammunition of this class, however, had up to this time been principally of the 
kind known as rim primed. It was desirable that the cartridge for military arms should 
be centre primed, if one suitable and equally sure of fire could be selected. An original 
cartridge was devised at the Springfield armory ; but one involving principles of con- 
struction that had already been suggested by various invent****, was experimented upon 
and finally adopted for manufacture at the Frankford Arsenal. The machinery for these 
latter productions had also been, in a great measure, previously suggested by inventors, 
and through the skill of the practical workmen at the Frankford arsenal, superintended 
and controlled by the^fficer in charge of the/ost, this machinery was perfected and sup- 
pl***ed so as to increase the production by each set of machines from a small number a 
day, in the beginning, to more than 10,000 a day when all the inprovements were effected. 
The manufactures at the Springfield armory of the newly adopted breech-loaders 
progressed as rapidly as the preparations there made, and the state of the public funds, 
would admit ; and successive improvements in the details of the breech arrangement, and 
in the reduction of the caliber of the arm, were made at that /ost up to March, 1870 ; 
when a Board of officers convened at St. Louis, Mo., was directed bv the War Depart- 
ment to "examine and report on the best small arms and accoutrements for the use of the 
army of the United States." This Board tested a considerable number of arms includ- 
ing the Remington, Peabody, Roberts, Berdan, Colt, Baxter, Triplett and Scott, Sharps', 
\V ard-Burton, Martini, Morgenstern, and Conroy breech-loading rifles, and the Reming- 
ton, Roberts, Sharps', Spencer, and Conroy breech-loading carbines, in competition with 
the adopted Springfield breech- loading rifles and carbines"; and selected the Remington, 
Springfield, and Sharps' as the three principal systems of breech-loading which com- 
mended themselves strongest to the judgment of the Board. One thousand rifles of 
each of these models, and 1000 Ward-Burton rifles, together with 200 carbines of each 
kind, were put into the hands of troops for comparative trial under all the vicissitudes of 
actual field service. In 1873, a Board of officers was convened at Springfield armory, 
under authority of an act of Congress, for the purpose of recommending for adoption "a 
breech-loading system for muskets and carbines." This system was, in the language of 
the act, to be, when so adopted, "the only one to be used' by the Ordnance /epartment 
in the manufacture of muskets and carbines for the military service." The following is 
a list of the arms received and examined by the Board : 

LIST OF AKMS. 

No. 1. Wooden model Edwin Sleeper. 

2. Muskets and carbines, cal. .50 (four samples) Gen. B. S. Roberts. 

" 3 - Carbine W . T _ Scott 

4. Magazine-carbine W. R. Evans. 

5. Musket, cal. .50 (two samples) Sharps' Rifle Company. 

6. Wooden model F. W. Worrell. 

7. Muskets and carbine, (three samples) Peabody Rifle Company. 

" 10. Musket, cal. .50 (four samples) E. Whitney 

" 14. Musket, cal. .42 J.' D. Greene. 




At 



/ 






20 

No. 15. Carbine, cal. .42 William Morgenstern. 

Musket (two samples) Frederick "Wohlgemuth. 

Musket, cal. .50 John Broughton. 

Muskets, (eight samples) E. Remington & Sons. 

Musket, cal. .50 W. H. Elliot. 

Musket, cal. .50 A. T. Freeman. 

Musket and Carbine, cal. .50 (two samples) Ward-Burton. 

Musket, cal. .50 B. M. Spencer. 

Musket, cal. .50 W. S. Smoot. 

Musket, cal. .50 Oscar Snell. 

Musket, cal. .42 S. F. Yan Choate. 

Musket, cal. .52 W. H. Robertson. 

Musket, cal. .50 Capt. J. M. Whittemore. 

Musket, cal. .50 . John L. Kirk. 

Musket, cal. .50 Smith & Chamberlain. 

Musket, cal. .50 - B. F. Joslyn. 

Musket, cal. .50 TJpdegraff. 

Musket, cal. .50 (two samples) ... Remington-Ryder. 

Musket, cal. .50 James F. Thomas. 

Muskets, (two samples) John Broughton. 

Musket, cal. .42 Westley Richards. 

Musket, cal. .50 Schofield-Remington. 

Muskets and carbines, (six samples) Springfield. 

Wooden model Alfred Beals. 

Musket, cal. .50 (two samples) I. M. Milbank. 

Magazine-musket, cal. .44 Stetson. 

Muskets, (three samples) James Lee. 

Wooden model G. R. Remington. 

Revolving carbine Helm. 

Musket, cal. 42 Berdan-Russian. 

Magazine-musket and carbine, (two samples) .... Ward-Burton. 

Musket, cal. .50 A. T. Freeman. 

Musket, cal. .58 Mont-Storm. 

Musket, cal. .50 Oscar Snell. 

Musket, cal. .50 Peabody. 

Musket, cal. .50 Earnest. 

Musket, cal. .50 Springfield-Stillman. 

Musket, cal. .50 Springfield- Allin. 

Wooden model J. B. Rumsey. 

Musket, cal. .50 A. T. Freeman. 

Carbine, cal. .50 E. Whitney. 

Repeating musket, cal. .45 Winchester. 

Carbine, cal. .50 W. H. Elliot. 

Locking rifle, cal. .50 Remington. 

Musket, cal. .50 Merrill. 



" 16. 


" 18. 


" 19. 


" 24. 


" 25. 


" 26. 


" 30. 


" 32. 


" 33. 


" 34. 


" 35. 


" 36. 


" 37. 


" 38. 


" 40. 


" 42. 


" 43. 


" 44. 


" 45. 


" 46. 


" 47. 


" 48. 


" 49. 


" 50. 


" 52. 


" 53. 


" 55. 


" 56. 


" 57. 


" 58. 


" 59. 


" 60. 


" 62. 


" 63. 


" 65. 


" 66. 


" 68. 


" 74. 


" 76. 


" 77. 


" 78. 


" 80. 


" 82. 


" 83. 



21 

No. 84. Musket, cal. .50 William Conroy. 

" 85. Navy rifle, cal. .50 Remington. 

" 87. Magazine-musket, cal. .42 "William Gardner. 

The following foreign arms were also examined by the Board, from which it will be 
seen that, so far as the facilities in the way of ammunition would permit, all the princi- 
pal domestic and foreign systems of modern date were examined and tried : 
Chassepot ; Needle-gun ; 

Needle-gun, improved ; Needle-carbine ; 

Mauser ; "Werndl ; 

Werder ; Yetterlin ; 

Martini-Henry. 
After the most thorough and exhaustive trials with all the foregoing arms, extend- 
ing over a period of eight months, and the examination of a great number of reports on 
the comparative trials then going on in the field, the Board was unanimous in recom- 
mending the Springfield breech-loading system for exclusive adoption in the rifles and 
carbines of the United States military service, and it has been so adopted and used since 
that time. A classification of breech-loading arms, as «e©4 by the recorder of that Board, yy^CL 

is herein inserted as of interest in connection with the subject of that class of firearms. 

( Here follows a tabular classification, extracted from the official report of the Board, 
which was published in the annual report of the Chief of Ordnance for the year ending 
June 30, 1873.) 



A/ 



22 





limU HgM, 



The several varieties of metallic cartridges now in use have been classified as follows : 

1st. Those in which the shells are made of continuous metal, combined with a suit- 
able primed anvil, but not re-info reed in the head. 

2nd. Those in which the shells are made of continuous metal, and of combinations 
of pieces of metal, combined with a primer, with and without a separate anvil, and are 
also re-inforced in the head. 

3rd. Those in which the body of the case is of continuous metal, and have a solid 
or other suitable attached head, properly primed. 

4th. Those made with a solid head of metal, continuous with the case, and suitably 
primed. 

It is generally conceded that the metallic cartridge of which the bodies are of con- 
tinuous metal, are superior to the wrapped-metal cartridge for military purposes, the 
latter not being so well adapted to stand the shock of transportation and the incidents 
attendant upon their carriage upon the person of the soldier. 

Immediately after the production of metallic ammunition had begun at Frankford 
Arsenal in 1866, daily firings were instituted at that Post in order to keep the quality of 
the work up to its highest standard. There gradually grew out of these firings a regular 
and systematic course of experiments having for its object the improvement of the am- 
munition in its several features, having respect both &*- the raw constituent materials, and 
to the actual performance of the ammunition in its completed state. These experiments 
were of the most prolonged and pains-taking description, involving the use of numerous 
specially contrived appliances, and of the most highly improved electro-magnetic and in- 
ductive instruments adapted to ballistic research. From the results attained in these ex- 
periments, and subsidiary results with rifles of various calibers at Springfield armory in 
1^72, a Board of officers was enabled in that year, to determine, within limits almost ap- 
proximating mathematical certainty, the proper caliber, length, weight, rifling, and form 
of chamber of the gun, and the quality, and quantity of the powder, the size, weight, and 
form of bullet, size and form of metallic cartridge case, and quantity and quality of lub- 
ricant, that would secure in the greatest degree the following qualities, viz : 

1. Accuracy in all winds. 2. Cleanliness, or sustained accuracy. 
3. Flatness of trajectory. 4. Penetration at long ranges. 

5. Moderate recoil. 6. Lightness of arm. 

7. Lightness of ammunition. 

The results of the labors of this Board were made use of by the Board which select- 
ed the breech-loading system for the arms of -e^* military service. 

Having thus sketched, in a cursory way, the history of the military arms of the e o aa - 
t**-for the service of infantry soldiers, a word may be added on the subject of pistols and 
revolvers. Thus far, in treating of fire-arms, the standard Government arms have been 
taken as the highest types of such manufactures m thio country, the adoption of such arms 
being in all cases made only after such experiments, competitive and otherwise, on the 
proving ground and in actual service in the field, as the resources of Government alone 
can afford. The development of the pistol, has been more the work of private parties. 

The earlier pistols used in our service were a class of single-barrel flint-lock arms, 
worn in holsters attached to the pommel of the saddle. These in time gave way to per- 



23 



cnssion arms, still single-barreled, and still worn in the holster on the saddle. The in- 
vention of the Colt revolving pistol in 1836, was the first giving any promise of success 
as a military weapon of this class. Its performances during the Mexican war, in 1847, 
were far from satisfactory, but by a series of improvements it was brought by the year 
1857 to a pretty high degree of efficiency. It performed a conspicuous part in the war 
of the Rebellion, where it was very generally used in the cavalry service. Many other 
revolvers, in principle like the Colt, were put forward during this war. In 1867, the Colt 
was transformed to use metallic cartridges, and is now one of the adopted arms of ew 
cavalry service. The Smith and Wesson revolver, using metallic cartridges, has also been, 
and is now very considerably used in e*w cavalry service. 

The private enterprise of . tho oountry engaged in the production of small-arms, has 
in our day risen to very great proportions. For a detailed description of the most im- 
portant of the large number of American inventions in breech-loading arms, and the man- 
ufactories of the same up to the year 1872, attention is invited to the volume of General 
Charles B. Norton, late U. S. Commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1867, entitled 
"American Breech-loading Fire-arms." The information which he has embodied in his 
volume regarding this growing industry, cannot fail to be of interest to professional men 
as well as to the general reader. For the details of the experiments made by the Gov- 
ernment in breech-loading arms and metallic ammunition, attention is invited to the pro- 
fessional papers and published Reports of the Ordnance Department of the Army. 

SPORTING ARMS. 

In few departments of industry has greater progress been made, during the last one 
hundred years, than is exhibited in the production of sporting fire-arms ; every part of 
which, from the heel plate to the muzzle, has been changed, modified, and improved until, 
with the present propelling agent, it is believed to be nearly perfect. 

The progress in the future will perhaps be in the propelling force. Although gun- 
powder now holds the first place, the constant experiments with other chemical compounds 
may eventually produce an agent, which giving greater power, will attain better results, 
and superseding gunpowder will no doubt require a further modification of the gun. 

The barrel is the most important part of the gun, and the improvement in its man- 
ufacture has been very great. The most celebrated barrels of the last century were those 
forged by Nicolas Biz, and Juan Belez, in Madrid. These were made by forging into a 
homogeneous mass, iron nails from horse shoes, drawing the bloom into strips of proper 
length, width, and thickness, and welding longitudinally. 

The fine quality of the iron originally employed in the manufacture of the nails, and 
the repeated hammering of the small pieces at the forge, in addition to the wear when 
under the horse's hoof, resulted in the production of an iron of great density and elasticity ; 
and although the fibre was parallel to the axis, the barrels possessed great and enduring 
strength. 

Damascus iron, composed of alternate plates of iron and steel, although not a modern 
compound, is now generally used for the best barrels. The plates being welded and forg- 
ed into a bloom, are drawn into rods under the tilt hammer, or between rolls ; each rod 
is then twisted on itself, and three rods with the twist running in different directions are 
welded together and brought to a proper thickness for the barrel. These strips or rib- 



Mi 





24 




bons are then wound around a mandrel, welded, and hammer hardened, and the rough 
barrel is the result. 

The process of twisting, rolling and welding can be carried to a great extent ; and if 
the operations are carefully performed, the iron will be improved, and the beauty of the 
figure increased as shown on the surface when browned. This same figure extends 
through the whole mass, and will show its beautiful lines wherever the browning pre- 
paration is applied. 

Barrels of great strength, hardness, elasticity and beauty are produced by welding 
scraps of mild steel into a bloom, hammering and rolling; and although the repeated heats 
dissipate most of the carbon, yet the result is a metal of wonderful density. 

The progress in barrel making has resulted in combining in the highest degree 
strength, lightness, elasticity, hardness, and durability. 

The'next great improvement, and one which revolutionized the whole system of ig- 
nition, was the invention of the percussion principle, in 1807, by Forcyth of Scotland ; 
and although the percussion cap was not introduced until about 1820, yet this invention 
contained the germ of all subsequent advances. 

The advantages gained over the flint-lock system were, the certain and instantaneous 
fire, and the saving in powder by closing the orifice through which ignition was produced. 

The interior parts of the lock remain the same ; and the main and sear springs, tumb- 
ler and swivel perform the same function as in the days of the flint-lock. 

The last improvement consists in lengthening the top of the main spring, and extend- 
ing it towards the tumbler ; the crank of the tumbler is lengthened beyond the swivel, 
and projects over the top part of the main spring. At half-cock the crank of the tumb- 
ler rests upon the top of the main spring, and keeps the hammers from coming in contact 
with the strikers. 

This arrangement retains the hammers at half-cock after every discharge, and by 
allowing the striking pins to be withdrawn within the face of the breech, removes all 
danger of premature discharge while in the act of loading and closing the gun. This im- 
provement is now adopted by all first class makers, and may be considered a decided 
success. For simplicity of construction and perfect adaptability to an end, the modern 
gun lock is a beautiful mechanism. 

The breech-loading action, although in principle dating back to a former century, is 
in its present perfect form the result of the labor and skill of the last thirty years ; and 
its success is due to the production of a cartridge which in itself is a perfect gas check. 
Introduced into England from France in 1856, the invention of M. Lefaucheux has been 
modified, improved and perfected by the skill and genius of many mechanical minds; 
and although every conceivable mode of fastening securely the barrels to the breech-block 
has been tried, and a great variety are now in use, yet but one end is to be obtained; 
and that is, the most perfect locking at the moment of discharge between parts necessa- 
rily separated. The double bolt under the barrels combined with the extended top rib 
loop fastening, seems to combine all the requisite strength. The cartridge is the essential 
part of the breech-loading system. 

Within a few years, the American system of choke boring has been revived in Eng- 
land with the most satisfactory results, when not carried to the extreme. The modified 



25 



choke as produced by Henry of Edinburgh, and others, gives an equal and uniform dis- 
tribution of the shot, and increases the penetration without sensibly increasing the recoil 
for the same charge of powder. 

This system has the advantage of durability, and must supersede the extreme choke, 
as exhibited in the last "Field" trial, being better adapted to all classes of sportsmen than 
the other. 

This invention, being certain and constant, dispenses with wire cartridges and con- 
centrators, the irregularity of which was a constant source of disappointment and an- 
noyance. 

The minor parts of the gun, have also been greatly improved. The stock is made 
more symmetrical, and its strength is increased by the selection of the firmest wood. Horn 
is substituted for iron in covering the butt, thereby exposing less surface to the action of 
rust. The tail piece i> attached by a spring working instantly, securely, and pleasantly, 
and dispenses with the old socket and loop. The shooting powers have been largely in- 
creased, and the perfected breech-loader of to-day is as powerful and effective at sixty 
yards, as the muzzle-loader of thirty years ago was at forty yards. 

It is not positively known at what time, and by whom, the germ of the rifle was in- 
vented, but it. is certain that, as early as 1198, grooved guns existed at Leipzig ; the crown- 
ing act, of the invention, however, was the introduction, by Augnstin Ivutler, of the rose 
grooved rifle with a spiral form in 1520, and to him belongs the honor of producing a 
weapon more potent for the purpose of attack and defence than any previous invention, 
and one which reduces the flight of the projectile to the individual skill of the marksman. 

The spiral grooves of the rifle «:ive the bullet a rotary motion, in proportion to the 
force applied and the kngt -h of the twist. The revolution of the projectile on its own 
axis keeps that axis in a line parallel to the axis of the bore of the gun, varied only by 
the power of gravitation, and the resistance of the air. 

Since Kntler's day, the ingenuity and skill of thousands of artisans, and many scien- 
tific minds have been devoted to the improvement and perfection of the rifle, and the 
names of Armstrong, Wliitworth, Lancaster, Purdy, and Henry, stand pre-eminent in the 
list; but there is hardly a form adopted in the last one hundred years, which has not 
previously been tried with more or less satisfactory results, and the great advance is to be 
attributed to the perfection of machinery which cuts the spiral grooves with mathemati- 
cal accuracy, and to science which produces such homogeneous metal for the barrels, 
rather than to any new principle. 

The modern express-rifle is constructed on a principle by which great accuracy and 
power are obtained ; good targets are made up to fourteen hundred yards, and heavy 
rifles with explosive shells are used with certain effect upon large game. Henry's rifling 
is the system generally adopted for these weapons. It consists of seven grooves, and one 
turn of twist in twenty-two inches. It is evident that this great increase of twist must 
require a corresponding increase of propelling force to overcome the enormous friction, 
consequently the charge of powder is enlarged to four drachms, materially extending the 
range. 

The application of the breech-loading system to the rifle, has produced the most 
satisfactory results. 

The projectile has no longer to be forced from the muzzle to the breech, but is now 




-/ 



26 



inserted in the chamber, and can be made the full size of the bore. The passage from 
the chamber into the tube, causes the operation of rifling to take place immediately and 
perfectly. 

FIELD ARTILLERY. 
The field artillery used during the American War of Independence, in 1776, con- 
sisted mainly of bronze smooth bore 12-pdrs, 6-pdrs. and 3-pdrs., and fairly represented 
the field guns of that period. The present organization, on the battery system was then 
unknown ; and the artillery of an army consisted of a train, which usually included field 
and sie-e -tins. The former were nominally divided into brigades or regiments; but 
the guns, for fighting purposes, were distributed among the infantry battalions, and were 
horsed by hired cattle driven by civic conductors temporarily employed for the purpose. 

This miserable organization was general in all armies until 1792-3, when horse ar- 
tillery were introduced into the French and English services ; but battalion guns were re- 
tained in the latter service as late as 1802, and in 1799 the two 6-pdrs. of an infantry 
brigade were each drawn by three horses in single draught, conducted by a man on toot 
with a wagoner's whip. 

Considerable progress was made in the organization and equipment of field artillery 
during the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, and 
in the" wars of Napoleon field artillery became.a special and powerful arm, possessed of 
K reat mobility, and capable, when skilfully handled, of deciding the fate of battles. 

Still although several important improvements were made in the smooth bore equip- 
ment during the long peace which preceded the Crimean war, little was done during the 
first half of the present century towards introducing a rifled arm. * 

Rifled muskets throwing spherical projectiles had long b een in use, but it was not 

* The following note, extracted from the English Text Book of the Construction and Manufacture of Ri- 
fled Ordnance ( Major F. S. Stoney, R. A. and Captain C. Jones, R. A.), Rives a list of the princ.pal inventors ot 
rifled cannon previous to the year 1850. 

In the Arsenal of St. Petersbur-j there is a gun 2 34 inches in diameter and 62 inches in length of bore, 
which was rifled in 9 grooves in 1G15. 

In 1601 the Prussians experimented at Berlin with a gun rifled with 13 shallow grooves. 

In 1690 the eliptical bore was known, and had been tried in various parts of Germany. 

In 1745, the date at which Robins was experimenting in England, the Swiss already possessed small rifled 
pieces. 

In 1740 Munich had a rifled breech loader made, and T. Senner was engaged in rifling various guns. 

In 1774 experiments with elongated projectiles, fired from a pdr. smooth bore gun, were carried out at 
Woolwich by the " Military Society." 

In 1770 Dr. Pollock proposed elongated shot for smooth bored guns. 

In 1790 Mr. Wiggin made designs of a rifled gun and belted projectiles. 

In 1810-9 M. Pouchara, a distinguished French artillery officer, was making experiments with an old 
gun rifled with 13 grooves. 

In 1821 Lieut. Croly of the British army proposed breech-loading cannon and lead coated projectiles. 

In 1823-32 Lieut. Norton, of the English service, proposed explosive shells and a rifled gun. 

In 1820 experiments were made with cylindro-conical percussion shells, designed by Lieut.-Colonel Miller 
of the English Uifle Brigade. 

In 1833 M. Montigny of Brussels invented a breech-loading rifled piece. 

In 1842 Colonel Trenille de Beaulieu first presented to the French Government his plan for rifling M. L. 



27 



until 1846 that the first military small arm using an elongated projectile was introduced 
by the French. 

The adoption of this muzzle-loading rifled musket was followed in 184* by the ap- 
pearance of the celebrated Prussian needle gun ; and, within a few years, the armies of 
the world were equiped with rifled small-arms firing elongated projectiles. 

The difficnlties'in the way of perfecting ammunition and constructing guns, were 
very much greater in the case of ordnance than in that of small-arms ; and, although 
several desultory experiments in this direction had been made, the question of rifled ord- 
nance first assumed a practical shape about the year 1855. Three years later, the first 
rifled gun, afield muzzle-loader, was introduced by the French ; and was followed immedi- 
ately by the adoption in England of the celebrated Armstrong breech-loading gun. The 
latter was abandoned in 1870 in favor of a muzzle-loading gun. 

Bttf, /t is not in the scope of this paper to discuss the various changes which have 
been made in the artillery services of the world since the introduction of rilled arms/ 
yhe following tables will show the field armament of the principal nations before the 
Franco- German War of 1870. 

FIELD ARTILLERY IN 1869. 



Particulars. 


American. 


Eng 


ish. 


French. 


Vra> 


sian. 


Austrian. 


Russian. 


























bt 


"ti 


a 
a. 


"u 


Z 


J 


V 


Ti 


X 


Tt 

3 


S3 


Calibre, inches. 


3.0 


3.0 


3.0 


3.41 


4.78 


3.1 


3.6 


3.2 


3.98 


3.42 


4.8 


Length of bore, inches. 


65.0 


52.5 


61.4 


55.1 


71.4 


70.6 


70.2 


47.7 ■ 


57.8 


51.4 


74.4 


System of loading. 


M.L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 


M. L. 


M. L. 


B. L 


B. L. 


M. L 


M.L. 


M. L 


M. L. 


No. of jrrooves. 


7 


38 


38 


6 


6 


12 


18 


6 


8 


6 


6 


Total weight of gun.cwts. 


7.32 


6.0 


8.5 


6.5 


15.9 


5.8 


8.5 


5.2 


9.8 


5.9 


15.9 


Weight of projectile, lbs. 


9.5 


9.0 


11.75 


9.0 


28.3 


9.6 


15.2 


8.0 


14.5 


10.0 


28.3 


Weight of charge, lbs. 


1.25 


1.13 


1.5 


1.21 


3.16 


1.1 


1.32 


1.16 


2.03 


1.35 


3.16 


Muzzle velocity, ft. 


1200 


1060 


1170 


1066 


1006 


1150 


1070 


1093 


1125 


1050 


1006 



In 1870, England abandoned the breech-loading system and introduced muzzle-load- 
ing field guns, while Russia, on the contrary, to a large extent abandoned muzzle-loading 
guns and introduced breech loaders. 

But little has been done in England since 1870 to develop the power of field artil- 
lery, as measured by the weight, and velocity of the projectile thrown, but extensive ex- 
periments have taken place. both in Fiance and Germany, and both these nations have in- 
troduced a new armament for their field artillery. 

guns, with a few large grooves tor studded projectiles, which was afterwards adopted in a modified form by the 
French service. 

In 1845, Major C'avalli, a Sardinian officer, invented a breech-loading gun rifled with two grooves for a rib- 
bed shot ; guns on his system were used at the siesre of Oaeta in 1860. 

In 1846, the Swedish Baron Walirendorf proposed the system of using lead coated projectiles with slial low 
grooved breech-loaders. 




vrv 










28 



ma 



Austria lias also abandoned muzzle-loading guns, and bronze breech-loaders are now 
being gradually introduced in tbe Austrian service. 

The French experiments subsequent to the war, were made both at Calais and Bour- 
ses ; and, at the latter place, the new muzzle-loading 9-pdr. English gun was tried in com- 
petition with others. 

The Bourges Committee summed up its conclusions in 1873 as follows : 

"In spite of a few imperfections, the English materiel taken as a whole constitutes 
a system of artillery of tbe first class. The Woolwich gun, with steel tube and wrought 
iron coils, produces results which are not inferior to those of any other field gun actually 
in any service in Europe. It is, however, probable that these results may be surpassed. 
This is the end which we must pursue in the search for a field gun, and it is indispens- 
able to attain it in case we adopt breech-loading; this system of loading presenting as it 
does practical disadvantages, should, to be adopted, afford in compensation a very marked 
superiority over the best muzzle-loading gun." 

It appears, therefore,.the French Commission fully recognized the advantages of a 
muzzle-loading system for field artillery, although they ultimately adopted a breech-load- 




Notwithstanding the high reputation which the Prussian field guns obtained during 
the war of 1870-71, there were many German artillery officers who were dissatisfied with 
their power; and the experiments which were carried out in England in 1872, in which 
the German 9-pdr. breech-loader was tried in competition with the English 9-pdr. muzzle- 



loader, strengthened this feeling;. 



The German artillery was unanimous in favor of breecb-loading; but it was thought 
that the field guns which took part in the war were deficient in power, and that the breech- 
loading system was capable of much greater development. 

The Berlin Artillery Committee accordingly directed their attention to the defects 
in the existing guns, and with the assistance of Ilerr Krupp they appear to have produc- 
ed an excellent field artillery equipment. 

The guns are said to be of great accuracy and power, and, judging from the speci- 
mens exhibited at Philadelphia, the whole equipment p gooonto a mojfc oorviooablo appoar - 






/\ 



The following table gives the dimensions of/the guns now in use by European field 
artillery : 




dUt^wn , 



29 



FIELD ARTILLERY OF 1876. 





Eng 


and. 






Prussia. 


Russia. 


Particulars. 






France. 


Italy. 






* 






-4J 


fc*> 






^J 


t>% 


• 


t*-. 




60 


> 

03 
99 






be 


> 

as 


A 


> 

OJ 
03 




J 


w 






J 


M 


►J 
3.42 


m 


Calibre, inches. 


3.0 


3.6 


3.35 


2.95 


3.09 


3.56 


4.2 


Length of bore, inches. 


63.5 


68.4 


74.1 


62.6 


74.2 


73.4 


60.7 


57.2 


No. of grooves. 


3 


3 


14 


12 


24 


24 


12 


16 


Weight of projectile, lbs. 


9 


16 


16 


8.2 


11 


16 


12.6 


24 


Weight of charge, lbs. 


1.75 


3 


2.65 


1.21 


2.76 


3.31 


1.5 


3.25 


Muzzle velocity, ft. 


1380 


1355 


1312 


1312 


1522 


1460 


1004 


1000 


Total weight of gun, cwts. 


6 


12 


12.02 


6.02 


7.68 


8.86 


6 


12.6 


Total weight of carriage, cwts. 


11.2 


12.8 


7.39 


7.36 


9.5 


10.25 


8.61 




No. of rounds carried with gun 


















and limber. 


40 


28 


32 


46 


39 


33 


18 


12 


Total weight behind team, in- 


















cluding gun, carriage, and lim- 


















ber packed, cwts. 


32 


41 


37. 


24.6 


35 


37.7 


24.4 




System of loading. 

• 


M. L. 


M. L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 


B. L. 



Rifled mountain guns have now been generally introduced into European armies. 
A complete description of the equipment of each country is beyond the limits of this 
paper, but the following table gives the principal dimensions and weights of the pieces 
now in use. 





English. 


Austrian. 


French. 


Italian. 


Russian. 


Spanish. 


Particulars. 














7-pdr. 


3-pdr. 


4-pdr. 


8- cm. 


3-pdr. 


8-cm. 


Calibre, inches. 


3 


2.92 


3.4 


3.4 


3 


3.4 


Length of bore, inches. 


36 


35.8 


31.7 


35.8 


24 


31.6 


No. of grooves. 


3 


6 


6 


6 


12 


6 


Total w'ght of gun, cwts. 


1.78 


1.71 


1.97 


1.97 


2 


1.97 


Material of gun. 


steel. 


bronze. 


bronze. 


bronze. 


steel. 


bronze. 


System of loading. 


M. L. 


M. L. 


M. L. 


M. L. 


B. L. 


M. L. 


Weight of projectile, lbs. 


7.3 


6.2 


8.8 


6.5 


8.8 


8.9 


Weight of charge, oz. 


12 


7.4 


10.6 


10.6 


12 


12.3 


Muzzle velocity, ft. 


955 


794 


771 


879 


698 





A highly interesting and valuable series of field artillery experiments were carried 
out in the autumn of 1875, at Okehampton, in England. 

The object of tln j se trials was to ascertain the effect of artillery fire under circum- 



* A new bronze B. L. rifled gun has been approved, and is in process of introduction into the Russian ser- 
vice — the chars_ r e will be aliout 4 lbs. giving a muzzle velocity of 1530 feet. 



30 

stances as regards ground, etc., that would represent, as far as possible, the conditions of 
actual war. 

For this purpose, two batteries of Royal artillery were encamped for about a month 
on Dartmoor in Devonshire. These batteries, day by day, drew their ammunition from 
a field magazine and manoeuvred over all sorts of ground, coming into action in various 
positions and at different distances, the sites of the objects fired at being also varied so as 
to obtain as closely as possible a representation of the effects of fire under all circumstan- 
ces that might occur on service. 

The objects consisted of wooden dummies representing infantry soldiers, and wooden 
targets to represent cavalry. The batteries depended for their knowledge of distance on 
observation alone, using for the purpose Nolan's range finder. 

The results of these important trials may be summarized as follows : 

1. Both time and percussion shells are indispensable to the efficiency of field art- 
illery. 

The destructive effect of a good time Shrapnel against troops in any loose formation, 
and presumably in motion, is greater than that of a percussion shell burst on graze. 

Against column formations, when the range is known, both projectiles appear to be 
equally efficient. 

The time shell has the advantage when firing at batteries or troops retired behind 
the crest of a hill. 

When firing at objects in motion, the effect of time Shrapnel depends greatly on the 
accuracy with which the varying distances are estimated ; upon the care and judgment 
in boring or setting the fuze to correspond with these conditions ; and upon the facilities 
for observing the value of each shell, as regards height and distance of the point of burst- 
ing from the object. 

On the other hand, the extreme simplicity of good percussion shells and the valuable 
aid they offer in readily picking up and varying the range, are advantages that cannot be 
over-estimated, and render a projectile of this nature especially valuable for use in the 
excitement and heat of action. 

The chief disadvantage in the employment of percussion shells arises from the un- 
certainty due to the nature and formation of the ground on which the shell may graze, 
and the possibility of its proper action being seriously interfered with or altogether nul- 
lified. 

2. Bodies of troops cannot with impunity remain stationary, or even move deliber- 
ately, in front of rifled guns at any distance under 4000 yards if the ground be all open, 
provided the artillery be posted so that they can see for that distance, and the atmosphere 
be clear. Villages or depots of stores would be unsafe at longer ranges. 

3. Under favorable circumstances of weather, and of open ground such as it may 
fairly be assumed an attacking force would have to traverse, it would be impossible with- 
out great loss to maintain column formation under the fire of rifled artillery at any dis- 
tance under 4000 yards. 

Under these circumstances of weather and ground, a well sustained and concentrated 
fire of rifled field artillery would prove most formidable to the advance of troops in any 



31 

formation. Even against skirmishers, well served time Shrapnel could be used with con- 
siderable effect at ranges under 2000 yards. 

4. A strong batter} 7 of rifled field artillery can take care of itself, provided its flanks 
are protected and the ground in its front is moderately open. 

5. It is most important that every field artillery battery should possess the means 
of ascertaining distances. The instruments used for this purpose should be accurate, 
simple and portable. It should, however, be borne in mind that no amount of simplicity 
or portability will compensate for inaccuracy. An instrument that will not find the 
range correctly is only in the way. But the possession of a trustworthy means of ascer- 
taining distances should never be allowed to interfere with the practice of judging dis- 
tance by eye. There will be many occasions where range finders cannot practically be 
used at all, and the true method of teaching gunners to lay guns is to constantly and 
carefully practice them in the art, so as to fix it indelibly upon their minds. 

There can be little doubt that field artillery has a great future before it, and that 
when skilfully handled it will produce surprising results. 

To all appearance, it has now arrived at perfection so far as regards power and mo- 
bility ; but it is possible that within a few years steam may play a part in field artillery, 
and that we shall live to see far heavier and more powerful guns than the present pieces 
brought into the field by traction engines. 

SIEGE ARTILLERY. 

The experience derived from the Franco-German War of 1870, and from recent ex- 
periments both in Germany and England, will doubtless result in considerable modifica- 
tions being made in the rules as now laid down for the conduct of sieges. 

The marvellous accuracy of modern artillery will render the use of the embrasure a 
practical impossibility, except under peculiar circumstances of position and distance ; and 
the production of a simple and strong siege carriage, from which direct fire can be obtain- 
ed with the minimum exposure of gun and detachment, is recognized to be a great de- 
sideratum. 

Of late years, much attention has been given to the subject of rifled siege artillery, 
particularly rifled mortars, and the following table gives the weights and dimensions of 
various pieces now in use. in Europe , The following abbreviations are used : 

S. and "W. I.=steel and wrought-iron. S.=steel. B.=bronze. C. I. = cast-iron. 




32 



TABLE GIVING THE "WEIGHTS AND DIMENSIONS 
OF SIEGE ARTILLERY, 1875. 



Nations. 


"3 
p 

p 


a> 

"o 

a 

P 

8 

o 

bio 

a 


TO 
0) 
> 

o 
o 
m 
6C 

O 

6 


m 

03 

53 

o • 

^3 
SB 

'5 

£ • 


□Q 

-a 

CD* 
be 

CO 

o 

be 

CO 


£ 

a 

a 
be 
o 

_bp 
'53 

o 
Eh 


tn 
rQ 

af 

be 

CS 

o 

D 

'> 
f-> 

a> 
CO 


a 



bt 
O 

[3 

'£- 

33 


be 

.2 
'■£ 

a 
o 

o 

a 

CO 

CD 
(►> 

til 


"3 
o 

> 

CD 

"n 
s 

3 


UNITED STATES 






















100-pdr. Parr. 


6.4 


100 


9 


101 


5.5 


86.6 


10 


C. & W. I. 


M. L. 


1250 


30-pdr. Parr. 


4.2 


120 




29 


1.5 


37.5 


3.2 


C. & W. I. 


M. L. 


1293 


4 1-2-in. gun. 


4.5 


120 


11 


25.5 


1.5 


30.8 


3.2 


C. I. 


M. L. 


1303 


ENGLAND. 






















64-pdr. 


6.3 


97.5 


3 


64.6 


7 


64.5 


10 


S. & W. I. 


M. L. 


1375 


40-pdr. 


4.7 


85.5 


3 


38 


2.6 


35 


7 


S. & TV. I. 


M. L. 


1336 


8-in. howtz. 


8 


48 


4 


180 


13 


46 


10 


S. & W. I. 


M. L. 


790 


PRANCE. 






















24-pdr. 


6 


79.2 


6 


52.9 


2.2 


40.4 


5.5 


B. 


M. L. 


955 


12-pdr. 


4.8 


78.9 


6 


25.3 


1.1 


17.1 


2.6 


B. 


M. L. 


1040 


GERMANY. 






















15-cm. long. 


5.9 


119.6 


37 


61.7 


4.2 


59 


13.2 


S. 


B. L. 


1542 


15-cui. short. 


5.9 


73.9 


24 


61.1 


4.4 


29.5 


3.3 


s. 


B. L. 


830 


12 pdr. 


4.7 


75.3 


18 


32 


1.1 


17.1 


2.3 


B. 


B. L. 


978 


21-cm. gun. 


8.2 


114.5 


30 ■ 


174 


10.5 


76 


14.3 


s. 


B. L. 


984 


21-crn. niort'r 


8.2 




30 


174 


10.5 


34.8 


4.4 


B. 


B. L. 


545 


RUSSIA. 






















24-pdr. 


6 


113.9 


24 


64.2 


2.6 


42 


6.3 


S. 


B. L. 




12-pdr. 


4.8 


84 


18 


32 


1.2 


18.5 


3.1 


B. 


B. L. 


1006 


8-in. gun. 


8 


113.5 


30 


176 


6.1 


102.2 


17.2 


S. 


B. L. 


1050 


8. in. rnortar. 


8 


54.2 


30 


176 


14 


78.2 


15.3 


B. 


B. L. 


826 


ITALY. 






















16- cm. 


6.5 


107 


6 


' 65.2 


2.6 


60.5 


7 


C. I. 


M. L. 


1092. 


12-cm. 


4.8 


76.4 


6 


24.6 


1.1 


14.4 


2.6 


B. 


M. L. 


1117 


22-cin. liowtz. 


8.8 


78.3 


6 


154.3 


7.7 


55.5 


7.7 


B. 


M. L. 


732 


AUSTRIA. 






















24-pdr. 


5.9 


87.1 


30 


60.8 


2.2 


30 


3.4 


C. I. 


B. L. 


804 


12-pdr. 


4.7 


98.3 


24 


30 


1.2 


29.3 


2.4 


C. I. 


B. L. 


570 


8-in. mortar. 


8.2 


60.1 


30 


193 


8.9 


98.8 


11.1 


C. I. 


B. L. 


718 



33 



HEAVY ORDNANCE. 

At the termination of the memorable siege of Gibralter, about 96 years ago, the 
serviceable and mounted armament of the fortress consisted of the following natures of 
cast-iron smooth bored ordnance — which represented the heavy artillery of the period. 
Guns : 32-pdrs., 24-pdrs., lS-pdrs., and 12-pdrs. 
Mortars: 13-inch, 10-inch, and 8-inch. 
Land service Howitzers : 10-inch, and 8-inch. 

At the great siege of Sebastopol, 5S years afterwards, the artillery used on both sides, 
with the exception of a few Lancaster rifled guns employed by the British, were cast-iron 
smooth bored pieces somewhat similar in general character to the guns used at Gibralter. 

Thus, over half a century had passed without any marked improvement in the power 
of ordnance. 

This stagnation, however, must not be attributed to ignorance of the theory of gun- 
nery, but to the want of suitable materials and proper machinery for the manufacture of 
larger and more powerful guns. 

Moreover, this period was not altogether one of inaction. 

General Paixhan in 1822 pointed out the advantages of horizontal shell fire, the de- 
velopment of which ultimately led to the introduction of ironclads. 

General Rodman^-also one of the pioneers of '•Armed Science^" — introduced the 
celebrated cast-iron smooth bored ordnance which bears his name, and thus placed the 
United States for some time at the head of the nations of the world in the matter of 
powerful ordnance. 

It must, however, be admitted that the first practical step that led- to the vast devel- 
opment which has of late years taken place in heavy ordnance, was the substitution of 
the elongated for the spherical projectile. 

Many attempts were made to rifle existing cast-iron smooth bore guns by grooving 
the bore, and apparently strengthening the piece by superimposed iron breech rings ; but 
all those attempts were mainly due to a tendency to utilize the stock on hand — and the 
trials in this direction showed that cast-iron guns thus rifled could not be depended upon 
when using high charges. Still, good results have been obtained by lining cast-iron guns 
with tubes of coiled wrought-iron or steel as proposed by Sir William Palliser and Capt. 
Parsons, and recent improvements in gunpowder may render these systems applicable to 
very heavy guns. 

The great progress, however, which took place in the manufacture of cast-steel, and 
the introduction of the steam hammer enabled the artillerist to forge the monster weap- 
ons of the present day, and to produce trustworthy guns of vast size and power. 

This great development in the power of attack, has advanced pari passu with a com- 
parative increase in power of defence. 

The introduction of horizontal shell fire led to the use of armor on the sides of ships 
of war; and the memorable trial of the "Warrior" target in England, in 1862, showed 
that the defence had succeeded in producing a vessel that was proof against the most 
powerful rifled or smooth bored guns then in Europe. 

This triumph, however, was but shortlived. Within a few months, Sir Joseph Whit- 



/ -'V 



/ 



34 




worth produced steel shells which perforated the Warrior target with ease ; and, since that 
date, the question of guns versus armor has been one of an oscillating character, accord- 
ing as thicker plates or more powerful guns have, from time to time, been produced. 

The "Warrior" with 4|--inch plates was followed by other vessels protected succes- 
sively with 6-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, 9-inch, 10-inch, 12-inch, and 14-inch plates: other ves- 
sels with from 20 to 24-inch armor are now in course of construction. 

The 7-inch ( 150-pdr.) rifled gun which perforated the Warrior, was followed by rifled 
guns of 8-inch ( 180- pdr.), 9-inch (250-pdr.), 10-inch (400-pdr.), 11-inch (500-pdr.), 12-inch 
(700-pdr.), and 12f~inch (800-pdr.). 

A 14-inch rifled gun (1150-pdr.) has been successfully constructed by Herr Krupp ; 
and a *r>-inch rifled gun ( 445 8-pdr.), manufactured in the Royal gun factory, is now under 
trial at Woolwich. Seventeen-inch guns (1900-pdr.) are in course of construction at Els- 
wicV by Sir William Armstrong and Co. ^ 

It is, moreover, apparent that this battle between the attack and defence has assum- 
ed the character of a gigantic International duel. 

The problem demands, and receives, the most careful consideration of the scientific 
artillerist and the. mechanical engineer, while some of the greatest achievements of the 
forge-master are performed in attempting its solution. 

All the mystery which may have previously existed in matters of gunnery, has now 
been cleared away ; and the general principles upon which trustworthy guns can be con- 
structed are perfectly well known and understood. 

It is, therefore, only in details that we may expect differences in the future construc- 
tiuii of trustworthy ordnance. 

The precise pattern adopted by each country may — as Mr. Stuart Rendel very justly 
says — be "'the result of compromise, and of a nice adjustment of the balance of advan- 
tage and disadvantage, as viewed by the respective ordnance authorities, and as well from 
a political and economical as from a technical point of view." 

But, however the details of metal, rifling, and method of loading may differ, the main 
conditions upon which the power of the guns depends — namely, velocity, penetration, 
and accuracy — must be secured. 

At present, the most prominent methods of constructing heavy ordnance in Europe 
are three in number — the English, the French, and the German. 

In the English, or Woolwich muzzle-loading system the gun is built up of a strong, 
solid ended, steel tube, surrounded by several double or triple wrought-iron coils. It is 
claimed that this method of construction produces the safest, cheapest, and simplest sys- 
tem of heavy ordnance. The guns are said to be the most powerful of their class, and to 
possess the great merit of non-liability to burst explosively — the failure of a gun being 
preceded by timely warnings to the gun detachments. 

The French breech-loading system of construction (modele 1S71) consists of a cast- 
iron tube, reinforced from the breech about one-third of its length by a steel tube, and 
strengthened over the breech, as far as the trunnions, by superimposed rings of puddled 
steel. Thus the breech of the gun, where the strength is required, is fortified by an in- 
ner steel tube and outer steel rings, and the chase is simple cast-iron, unstrengthened. 



*> 



mi- 







/ yfrfo awii 



/W--6 /irt/i/n 






jT^H^h^d ctma vi rm-z^ imt&i -/tutti 



35 

The German or Krupp breech-loading method of construction has been very fully 
detailed in the report on the Vienna Exhibition. 

It consists of a steel tube surrounded* by superimposed steel rings. 

It would be impossible without a practical competitive trial to form an opinion as to 
the relative merit of these three systems, or to decide which country has the best armor 
piercing gun. 

It is only possible to produce figures, drawn from the most trustworthy sources at our 
.command, and arranged in the most convenient form. 

The comparative merit of armor piercing guns is deduced on paper from the weights 
of the projectiles which they throw, and the velocity with which these projectiles strike 
the object, at which they are directed. 

The blow thus struck is proportional to what in scientific language is termed the 
"energy" of the projectile at impact. The numerical value of th;s quantity is found by 
multiplying the weight of the projectile in pounds by the square of the velocity on im- 
pact in feet, and dividing the product by twice the force of gravity in feet — or 

W v 2 

E = -— (. 1 ) 

As a matter of convenience it is usual to express the result in foot tons, and as there 
are 2240 lbs. in a ton, equation (1) becomes 

"Wv 2 
E = -£1 ( 2 ) 

Here E, equals the total energy of the projectile, on impact, in foot tons. 
W equals the weight of the projectile, in pounds, 
v equals the velocity of the projectile, upon impact, in feet. 

The facility with which the projectile will perforate an armored structure, depends 
upon its diameter as well as upon its energy ; but scientific artillerists are not agreed upon 
the expression which most faithfully represents the comparative powers of different di- 
ameters. As an illustration, however, we shall select the English expression, which as- 
sumes that the resistance offered by armor varies as the calibre. It is usual to express 
this rule by introducing into the formula the shot's circumference in inches, and to call 
the result of the computation the "energy per inch of the shot's circumference." 

Thus, if E / be the total energy and E t/ the energy per inch of the shot's circumference : 

E Wv 2 
tz D ~ 44SU g it D K ° ) 

where D is the diameter of the projectile in inches. 

The following table gives the principal dimensions and weights of English, French, 
and German armor piercing guns, and a comparison of their relative merit as indicated 
by equation (2). 



36 



THE ENGLISH, FRENCH AND GERMAN SYSTEMS 
OF HEAVY ORDNANCE, 1876. 



/#?■< 



0/ 



Particulars. 


English. 


French. 


German. 


12.5-in. 


11-in. 


10-in. 


12.5-in. 


11-in. 


9.5in. 


11-in. 


10-in. 


9-in. 




'Calibre, inches. 


12.5 


11 


10 


12.6 


10.8 


9.5 


11.02 


10.24 


9.27 


§ < 


Length of bore, inches. 


198 


145 


145.5 


204.1 


163.7 


162.6 


207.1 


194.5 


177.6 


0) 


, Total weight, tons. 


38 


25 


18 


34.5 


21.7 


13.8 


27.07 


21.65 


15.26 


i 


' Weight empty, lbs. 


668 


501.25 


374 


593.5 


303.8 


211.25 


381 


330.7 


247 


In 


Diameter, inches. 


12.42 


10.92 


9.92 


12.66 


10.89 


9.55 


11.16 


10.37 


9.38 


a 
© 


Length, inches. 


36.2 


34.2 


32.5 


34.1 


24.02 


21 








5 


Bursting charge, lbs. 


43.8 


28.75 


27.1 


38.1 


13.67 


9.25 


23.48 


19.8 


15 


d 


.Total weight filled, lbs* 


726.5 


530 


401.1 


631.6 


317.5 


220.5 


404.5 


350.5 


262 


^ 


r Diameter, inches. 


12.42 


10.92 


9.92 


12.66 


10.89 


9.55 


11.16 


10.37 


9.38 


si J 


Length, inches. 


33 


28.3 


26.3 




24.4 


21 


27.56 


25.6 


23.2 


M p. 


.Total weight, lbs. 


815 


535 


400 


760.5 


476.4 


317.6 


517 


414.5 


306.4 


a as 
+j — 


Weight, lbs. 


130 


85 


70 


136.7 


88.2 


61.7 


88.18 


70.55 


52.9 


Muzzle velocity, ft. 


1425 


1315 


1364 


1312 


1378 


1427 


1394 


1385 


1312 


P3 

Total 


energy at muzzle, ft. tons. 


11260 


6415 


5160 


9080 


6270 


4480 


6970 


5515 


3660 



The greatest amount of work realized in any gun to date (Aug. 5, 1876) resulted in 
tiring the 80 ton Woolwich gun, bored to 16 inches, with a charge of 350 lbs. of 1.5 inch 
cub^ powder and a projectile 1703 lbs. in weight. In this case, the muzzle velocity was 
1505 feet, the muzzle energy 2674Wioot tons, and the mean pressure in the powder 
chamber 20.4 tons on the square inch. 

The question between muzzle-loading and breech-loading for heavy guns is a most 
complicated one, and can only be decided by balancing the advantages of one system 
against the other according to the nature of the service for which the gun is required. 

The system of breech-loading now in use for heavy guns may be divided into two 
classes. 

1. Tiyse in which the breech is closed by means of a wedge or stopper introduced 
through an opening in the side of the gun, as in the Krupp system. 

2. Those in which the closing is effected by a screw, withdrawn from the breech at 
every round, as in the French system. 

For heavy rifled guns the points of greatest importance are strength, endurance, pow- 
er, accuracy, and simplicity and safety in working. 

The practical question to be decided is whether these conditions can best be realized, 
as a whole, by inserting the charge at the breech or at the muzzle. It must be admitted that 



* Experiments are in progress with a common shell 815 lbs. in weight, and 37.5 inches long. 



37 

a solid ended steel tube in the strongest part of the gun will afford greater longitudinal 
strength than the breech-loading arrangement in either of the above systems; but, in re- 
ply to this, it is asserted that the longitudinal strength given by the breech-loading con- 
struction is sufficient for all practical purposes, as shown by the fact that well constructed 
breech-loading guns do not give way at the breech. 

As regards endurance a superiority is claimed for the breech-loader on the score of 
the vent, the most perishable part of the gun, passing through the breech-wedge or screw 
instead of through the body of the piece. The breech-wedge can be renewed at pleasure. 

It is also urged that in a sys< erne force in which lead coated ofl copper banded pro- 
jectiles are employed, there is less chance of erosion in the bore. 

These claims are met by an admission that the power of renewing at pleasure that 
part of the gun in which the vent is situated constitutes an advantage for breech loading ; 
but it is pointed out that the use of a "gas-check 1 ', or expanding base ring, effectually 
closes the windage in the muzzle-loading guns, and thus places them on a par with breech- 
loaders as regards erosion of the bore. 

With respect to power and accuracy, it is urged that both are increased by having a 
long bore, and that the breech-loading gun may be made of any desired length without 
practical inconvenience ; whereas the length of the muzzle-loader must depend on the 
position in which it is mounted. In reply to this argument the advocates of muzzle-load- 
ers admit the advantage with respect to guns mounted in fortifications and on the broad- 
side of vessels, but do not accept it in the case of turret vessels armed with two guns in 
each turret. It is urged that the dimensions of turrets are governed by the s:>ace requir- 
ed for the gun's crews to work, or the space which must be left between the gun-slides 
and the interior of the turret; with guns of similar calibre this space would, it is said, 
be the same whether the guns were breech-loaders or muzzle-loaders. 

Simplicity and safety in working includes ease of loading, exposure of the men 
while loading, treatment of recoil and the possibility of the gun being rendered unservice- 
able while in action. 

The advocates of breech-loading urge that the labor and difficulty of bringing up a 
heavy projectile to the muzzle, and of placing it in the bore where the space is most con- 
fined and the men have least room to work, is considerably mitigated in the service of a 
breech-loader. 

Moreover, muzzle-loading guns necessitate long sponges and rammers, and the man- 
ipulation of such long staves is attended with much difficulty and loss of time. These 
difficulties also naturally increase with the length of bore and weight of projectile, so 
that every advance in the size of guns favors the breech-loading system. In considera- 
tion, therefore, of the reduced distance over which the charge has to be carried and the 
facility afforded in ramming it home, a greater rapidity of fire is claimed for breech loaders. 

It is urged that with muzzle-loaders the men are much exposed to the fire of the en- 
emy's guns and rifles, and that their morale may be destroyed by the casualties caused by 
sharpshooters or Shrapnel shell. 

In the service of the muzzle-loader from six to eight men are grouped together for 
some considerable time in the most exposed position, i. e. at the opening of the port or 
embrasure, whilst sponging and loading the gun. With breech-loaders these same men 




38 




/l,b' 



are at a distance from the port, and are covered to a great extent by the gun and carriage. 

It is said that recoil can be more easily and simply treated in breech-loaders, as the 
muzzle-loaders requires/ a nice adjustment of the compression to ensure sufficient recoil 
for loading; and in case the recoil should not be sufficient, running back tackle must be 
used, thus causing delay. 

It is further urged that injury to the gun whilst loading is reduced to a minimum 
in breech-loaders. 

In the hurry of action, and difficulty of handling the long unwieldy rammer of a muz- 
zle-loader, the projectile may not be sent home on the cartridge — a circumstance which 
would not only be attended by loss of accuracy, but might lead to fatal injury being in- 
flicted on the gun through the premature bursting or breaking up of the projectile. The 
condition of the bore of the breech-loader can be ascertained at any moment, and it is sure 
to be kept free from dirt and rust which in muzzle-loaders are difficult to detect and are 
detrimental to the gun. 

Lastly, the breech-loader, assuming the safety of the breech action, is perfectly ex- 
empt from those distressing accidents which from time to time occur from the premature 
explosion of the cartridge. 

In reply to these arguments* the advocates of muzzle-loaders, admit that the actual 
manual labor expended in loading a heavy muzzle-loading gun is probably greater than 
in a breech loader of the same calibre, and that this increases with the size of the gun, 
but they point out that as a matter of fact no real difficulty is experienced in loading 
heavy muzzle-loading guns up to the 12 inch, and that the introduction of machinery will 
supersede manual labor in guns of the heaviest nature. It is as easy, if not easier, to apply 
machinery for this purpose to a muzzle-loader as to a breech loader. 

It should, moreover, lie borne in mind that the time saved in the breech-loader by 
the reduced distance over which the charge must be carried, and the facility afforded in 
ramming it home, will be counterbalanced by the time lost in opening and closing the 
breech, and inserting and withdrawing the bridge. Indeed, there is no clear proof that 
with heavy rifled guns now actually used by European Powers, breech- loaders have any 
advantage in rapidity of fire over muzzle-loaders, f 

With respect to exposure of the detachments while loading muzzle-loaders, it is 
pointed out that the assumption cannot be admitted as regards guns mounted in armor 

* Many of I lie fill lowing arguments are condensed from an excellent paper on tlie subject by a distin- 
guished British naval officer. 

f NoTB. — The following facts are interesting as instances of the rapidity of fire of heavy muzzle-loading 
rifled guns. The English ironclads "Monarch" (turret) and "Hercules" (broadside) when steaming at the rate 
of between four and five miles an hour, opened fire at a rock distant about 1000 yards, using battering charges 
and Palliser projectiles. The Monarch in five minutes fired 12 rounds from the four 12-inch guns, and struck 
the rock seven times. 

The Hercules in five minutes fired 17 rounds from her four 10-inch guns, and struck the rock eleven times. 

In June last, some practice was carried out at Shoeburyness in England to test the rapidity of fire and ac- 
curacy of the tS 1 '0-inch rifled gun of 38 tons, firing 800 lb. projectiles with 130 lb. charges. 

The gun was directed successively at three targets, at the respective distances of 1000. 1500 and 2000 yards, 
each target being taken in turn so as to vary the direction and training of the guns for each rouud. 

The average time of firing 50 noundoi rapidly^ was 2 minutes and 20 seconds per round ; and the practice 
was excellent, all the targets being completely shot away. 



39 

clad vessels, because the ports are always fitted with iron rifle proof lids having a small 
circular hole in the centre through which the handles of the sponge and rammer are 
worked ; and these port lids are lowered whilst the guns are being loaded under rifle or 
Shrapnel fire. 

The same system could probably be applied to the embrasures or shields of case- 
mated works. 

No practical difficulty is said to be found in controlling the recoil of muzzle-loading 
guns ; and with a little practice the compression can be adjusted so as to allow the gun, on 
recoil, to assume the proper position for loading without using the running in gear at all ; 
but in the event of the gun not having recoiled sufficiently, owing to too great compres- 
sion having been given, a very few turns of the running in winches places it immediately 
in the required position. 

The possibility of injury being caused to the gun by careless loading in the muzzle- 
loader, is counterbalanced by the possibility of careless manipulation of the breech closing 
apparatus of the breech-loader. But, in order to ensure the projectile being rammed close 
to the cartridge, a plain and distinct mark is placed on the staff of each rammer in such 
a position that when the mark is in line with the muzzle of the gun it is certain that the 
projectile is close home on the cartridge. 

There is no case on record of the premature explosion of a cartridge while firing 
shotted charges in a heavy muzzle-loading rifle gun, and the practice of using saluting 
charges in such guns, although attended with very little risk, should be discouraged as 
much as possible. 

Lastly, the advocates of muzzle-loading lay considerable stress on the simple charac- 
ter of the weapon. 

It is urged that in actual warfare we require an article with the minimum chances 
of going out of order. 

There is always a chance that the breech-closing arrangement may give trouble just 
at the most critical moment, whereas comparatively nothing can go wrong in a muzzle- 
loader. 

The foregoing are the main arguments on the question of breech versus muzzle-load- 
ing for armor piercing guns. 

To give an opinion one way or the other is not within the scope of this paper ; in- 
deed, the duty of the "expert" lies in placing the arguments impartially side by side, so 
that in discussing the question the true advantages and disadvantages may be clearly re- 
cognized. The subject can then be dealt with not as a question of sentiment but as a 
matter of fact. 

The subject of gunpowder will be treated under the head of Explosives ; but as the 
development of modern ordnance has, in great measure, depended upon the invention of 
large grained gunpowder by General Rodman, and the subsequent improvements in man- 
ufacture, it will not be out of place to give a brief resume here of the general conclu- 
sion which may be drawn from recent experimental research in this direction. 

1. It has always been a matter of difficulty to define a "blow" and a "pressure." 
A blow is said to be a pressure suddenly applied ; but as there must always be variation 



40 




in the suddenness of application, we cannot easily define the point where the pressure ends 
and the blow begins. 

It has long been assumed that the effect produced by the explosion of a charge of 
gunpowder within the bore of a gun partakes of the character of a blow, but recent ex- 
periments appear to indicate that this is not the case. 

In the investigations carried out at Woolwich in 1869-76, the pressure was directly 
recorded by means of an instrument on the Rodman principle. 

The apparatus, termed the "Crusher-Gauge," is screwed into the body of the gun, and 
admits of the explosion acting directly on the base of a small steel piston which, in its 
turn, acts upon a small cylinder of pure copper. The latter, on the explosion of the charge, 
is compressed by the piston, and the amount of compression is a measure of the pressure 
exerted. 

It has been found that successive applications of pressure produced by again and 
again using the same copper cylinder with similar charges, produce no further compres- 
sion over that due to the first charge than might be accounted for by variation in the pres- 
sure of similar charges. 

For example, in a 10-inch gun the effect of firing a 400 lb. projectile with a TO lb. 
charge of pebble powder was to reduce the length of the copper cylinder, say from 0.5 
inch to 0.25-inch ; but this cylinder was not perceptibly reduced in length lower than 0.25 
inches, by subjecting it to the action of several other discharges of 70 lb. charges and 400 
lb. shot. 

A similar copper cylinder was then placed under a falling weight, and made to re- 
ceive a blow which reduced its length from 0.5-inch to 0.25-inch. It was then subjected 
to several successive blows given by the weight falling again and again from the same 
height The result was that it was battered into a form somewhat resembling a cent. 

It is evident, therefore, that the pressure produced by slow burning powder is not dy- 
namical, or similar to that due to a weight falling from a height. 

The following table gives the results of an experiment in which the same cylinders 
were subjected several times to the action of vgvj heavy charges fired from a 12^-inch 
rifled gun of 38 tons. In some cases the form was unchanged after the second round. 

PRESSURES INDICATED BY THE CRUSHER-GAUGE 

IN THE 12.5-INCH RIFLED M. L. GUN. 
Charge 130 lbs. of 1.5 inch cubical powder. Projectile 800 lbs. 





0) £» 
3 ° 


Pressure in tons per square inch at various points 
from end of bore. 


Remarks. 





12 
inches. 


24 
inches. 


36 

inches. 


48 
inches. 


60 
inches. 


1 

2 
3 
4 


1401 
1417 
1408 
i424 


22.3 

22.7 
22.7 
22.7 


21.4 
22.8 
22.9 
22.9 


20.3 
20.4 
20.5 
22.4 


20.1 
21.1 
21.3 
23.6 


14.1 
14.9 
16.1 
17.1 


12.0 

12.1 
12.3 

12.7 


New copper cylinders. 
Same coppers as used in round 1. 
Same coppers as used in rounds 1 & 2. 
Same coppers as used in rounds 1, 2 & 3. 



41 

These experiments corroborate those made previously on the same subject by General 
Rodman. 

2. The use of unsuitable descriptions of powder, or even of excessive charges of 
slow burning powder, may give rise to oscillations of pressure termed "wave action," which 
act violently on local points in the powder chamber without contributing to the useful ef- 
fect of the charge. 

3. If powder be burned uniformly in the gun without indication of wave action, the 
pressure will increase with the increase of charge — at first very rapidly, but after 20 tons 
on the square inch has been exceeded, then very slowly. 

4. With a suitable charge for the gun, the pressure in the powder chamber increases 
slowly but steadily with the increase in weight of the projectile up to a certain point : be- 
yond this point, no material increase of pressure can be obtained by increasing the weight 
of the projectile. 

5. As already stated, the greatest amount of work heretofore realized in any gun, 
resulted in firing the 80 ton Woolwich rifled muzzle-loading gun with a charge of 350 lbs. 
and projectile 1703 lbs. in weight. In this case the muzzle velocity was 1505 feet ; total 
muzzle energy 26740 foot tons, and mean pressure in the powder chamber 20.4 tons on 
the square inch. 

The Krupp 14-inch breech-loading rifled gun has realized a muzzle energy of 21300 
foot tons in firing a charge of 297.6 lb. and shot of 1146.4 lb., the pressure being 25.9 tons 
on the square inch. 

6. Experiment has shown that the pressure produced by the explosion of large 
charges, can be varied and controlled by mechanical alterations in the form and density 
of the gunpowder used. It has also been proved that hydraulic power can be easily ap- 
plied to the service of the heaviest guns. We may, therefore, conclude that the size of 
heavy rifled ordnance will go on steadily increasing, and will only be limited by practi- 
cal requirements. 

MACHINE GUNS. 

The machine gun, although of comparatively recent date as a weapon of practical 
use in military operations, cannot be regarded as a new invention, or even as a novel idea 
in the science of mechanism. At no period in the history of fire-arms did the genius of in- 
vention rest content with the completion and successful trial of any single weapon ; for no 
sooner was such success assured than mechanical ingenuity seized upon the idea, and en- 
deavored by all manner of strange devices to increase and multiply the destructive effect 
of the newly discovered power. This constant effort to combine in one weapon the force 
of many, kept pace with and adapted to its own use the discovery of each new principle 
in the development of fire-arms ; so that the history of machine guns may be said to have 
commenced with the crude match-locks of olden times, and to have continued uninter- 
ruptedly to the perfection of the modern breech-loader. 

Machine guns under the names of ribaudequins orgues, organ or tube guns, were 
known in the early days of artillery — a gun composed of four breech-loading tubes of 
small calibre placed on a two wheeled cart, having been used in Flanders as early as 1347. 
Mention is also made of a machine, used in Italy in the 14th century, which consisted 
of a carriage having 144 small bombards ranged upon it, in rows of 12 each, so that 36 



42 



An Cm 



'symvt'&a 




balls could be fired at once. Four-tubed guns were also used by the Scotch during the 
civil war in 1644. 

All of these guns were of a clumsy construction, uncertain in range, and so slow in 
delivering their fire that they were regarded as of very little value ; and although much 
improved during the 16th and 17th centuries, they were gradually superseded by the in- 
troduction of field artillery, which until that time had not been in actual use, owing to 
the difficulty of constructing carriages strong enough to resist the recoil of the guns and 
at the same time possessed of the lightness and mobility requisite for a field piece. 

Little more is heard of machine guns during the two centuries following, until the 
Crimean war woke up the spirit of destructive invention. Among the hundreds of war- 
like implements which immediately appeared, were several varieties of compound guns 
mounted on frames and wheels, and loaded and fired by various complex devices. 

None of these inventions, however, were considered suitable for active service ; but 
as they undoubtedly possessed some of the essential features of a perfect machine gun, 
the interest in them was not allowed to subside. The war of the Rebellion, following 
soon after, aroused all the inventive genius of the new world, gave additional impetus 
to European attempts, and in a few years brought machine guns so near perfection that 
their successful use in active service during the Franco-Prussian war demonstrated the 
fact that the difficulties which had so long prevented their adoption had finally been over- 
come, and that a new and torriblo weapon had taken its place in modern warfare. 

The history of these arms in the United States, beginning with^H-barrelled breech- 
loading gun introduced during the war of 1812, and ending with Gatling gun of world- 
wide reputation, shows a continuous series of attempts to solve the difficult problem of 
combining magnitude of effect with simplicity of mechanism. 

The records of the Ordnance Bureau War Department, alone, contain descriptions of 
no less than twenty-five different designs of machine guns, and these probably form but 
a small portion of the number actually invented. They include almost every possible 
method of arranging the barrels, and in the operations of loading and firing call into use 
all the means of effecting that purpose which from time to time have been introduced in- 
to the manufacture of small-arms. They were used for the first time, though to a very 
limited extent, during the Rebellion — a Requa rifle battery used at the siege of Charles- 
ton being almost the only instance on record. Other varieties, such as the Union or "Cof- 
fee mill" gun, the Rapheal repeating gun, the Kellogg gun, and the Vandenburg volley 
gun, were brought into notice from time to time and were tested by the government, but 
none were found suitable for active service. 

All of these machine guns had the same objectionable features that had prevented 
the adoption of their numerous predecessors, viz., complexity of mechanism, want of mo- 
bility necessary in field artillery, and damaging recoil from the simultaneous explosion of 
so many distinct charges of powder. 

The Gatling gun, invented in 1862 and subsequently much improved, was a long step 
in advance of all the machine guns that had preceded it, and possessed to a great extent 
that simplicity and lightness so much needed in an arm of this kind. It was not until 
January 1865, however, that its merits were brought to the knowledge of the War De- 
partment, and extensive and elaborate trials were inaugurated which finally resulted in 
its adoption into the military service of the United States. 



43 

The early history of the Gatling, like that of all breech-loaders, is clonded by defects 
and failures arising from the want of the essential feature of this system, viz. an effect- 
ual gas check ; this was at length furnished by the adoption of a metallic cartridge for 
all breech-loading arms — so that, after all, it owes a great part of its success to the per- 
fection of late attained in the manufacture of this ammunition. 

EXPLOSIVE AND FULMINATING COMPOUNDS. 

During the past century, a great advance has been made in knowledge respecting 
the nature of explosive agents, and many new varieties have been added to the list 
available for use in peace and in war. Indeed, one hundred years ago, gunpowder was 
exclusively employed, while to-day it is often superseded by more powerful and econom- 
ical agents then quite unknown. Although, from obvious reasons, this class could only 
be represented by imitations at the Centennial Exhibition, the subject is one of so much 
importance that a few words respecting the explosives now in common use will not be out 
of place. 

The effects of an explosion are due to the sudden evolution of a great volume of 
highly heated gas in a confined space. Detonation implies that this physical change oc- 
curs instantaneously, giving rise to a violent blow rather than to a sustained pressure. The 
essential constituents of most explosives are carbon, oxygen and nitrogen ; and the gas- 
eous products consist mainly of carbonic acid gas and free nitrogen, but other elements 
are often present and enter into the chemical reactions. 

Modern explosive agents may be divided into two great classes, mechanical mixtures 
and chemical compounds. To the former, belong the nitrates and chlorates; and to the 
latter, guncotton, nitro-glycerine and its compounds, the picrates, and the various fulmi- 
nates ; each will be briefly considered in turn. 

The titrates. Gunpowder is the best known type of this class. It is a mechanical 
mixture of potassium nitrate, carbon and sulphur, the proportions by the atomic theory 
being about 74.5, 13.5, and 12.0 respectively. For the military service the proportions 
iisually differ but slightly from these figures ; for sporting purposes the potassium nitrate 
is often increased and for blasting purposes decreased. The general characteristics of 
gunpowder, and the usual process of manufacture, are too well known to require notice 
here ; but a very recent modification in the latter, invented and introduced in Russia by 
Colonel Wierner three years ago, merits attention — especially as samples of the powder 
thus made have been submitted to the Judges of Group XVI. 

The new process consists, essentially, in replacing the wetting, compressing, and dry- 
ing processes by dry hot pressure between steam heated plates. The temperature should 
be about 248 Fah. A pressure of 30 atmospheres gives a density from 1.66 to 1.70, and 
of 130 atmospheres from 1.86 to 1.90. The powder should remain under pressure for ten 
minutes. It is claimed that by this change the needful machinery and the cost of pro- 
duction are largely reduced ; that the powder is rendered less absorbent ; that the opera- 
tion is less dangerous, because from the great saving of time less bulk is operated upon 
at once ; and, lastly, that greater uniformity in density is secured. After soaking samples 
of the powder shown at this Exhibition for ten days in pure water, the plates did not 
break up, while powder of excellent quality made in the usual way, treated in like man- 



44 

ner, soon became thoroughly disintegrated. The process can be used as well for blasting 
powder made from sodium nitrate, as for the higher grades made from potassium nitrate. 

Although gunpowder has been in general use for more than 500 years, the modern 
system of experimental research has led to great advances in knowledge respecting it 
during the past century. The investigations of Count Rumford, communicated to the 
Royal Society in 1797, furnished data respecting the pressure developed by its explosion, 
which have continued to be regarded as the best standard until very recently (1875) when 
the elaborate results obtained by Capt. Andrew Noble and Mr. Abel, were published. In 
1825, Chevreul drew attention to the difference in decomposition caused by variations 
in the conditions under which gunpowder may be exploded. General Piobert made many 
valuable experiments between the year 1831-36, which were fully elaborated in his stand- 
ard work published in 1859. In 1841, Colonel Bumford IT. S. A. devised a system of 
measuring the pressure exerted in different parts of the bore of a cannon, which has done 
much to improve the construction of modern ordnance. In 1856, General Rodman U. S. 
A., invented better apparatus for observing these pressures, and by its aid discovered the 
important and normal changes which may be caused in the ratio between the pressure ex- 
erted upon the gun and the velocity communicated to the projectile, by judiciously varying 
the size and composition of the grains. These studies led him to invent mammoth and per- 
forated cake powder ; which have been adopted with certain modifications by the British 
Government under the names pellet and pebble powder, and by the Russians under the 
name of prismatic powder. Without these inventions, the immense guns now adopted in 
all military services could never have been introduced. The general principle upon 
which these improvements are based is the fact that gunpowder does not detonate, but 
burns ; and that the rate of burning may be varied by changing the size and form of the 
grains, and by regulating their density and hardness and the mechanical condition of their 
exterior. For instance, the powders employed in the experiments in progress with the 
80 ton gun in England, consist of grains of a cubical form varying from one to two inches 
on the edge. 

Space forbids even an enumeration of the works upon gunpowder which have ap- 
peared during the past twenty years; but the following summary of some of the more 
important conclusions announced by Noble and Abel, will give a sufficient idea of the 
present state of knowledge upon the subject. 

When gunpowder is fired in a space entirely confined, one gramme occupying one 
cubic centimetre, the products consist of about 57 per cent, by weight of matter which 
ultimately assumes a solid form, and 43 per cent, of permanent gases — of both of which 
chemical analyses are given by the writers. At the instant of explosion, these fluid and 
gaseous products are approximately of the same specific gravity. The tension is about 
6400 atmospheres, or about 42 tons per square inch, if the powder entirely fills the space 
in which it is fired. The temperature of explosion is about 4000° Fab., and about 705 
gramme units of heat are developed by the decomposition of 1 gramme of the kind of 
powder tested. 

When gunpowder is fired in the bore of a gun, the proportion of the solid and gase- 
ous products are the same as the above. The work on the projectile is effected by the 
elastic force due to the permanent gases. The reduction of temperature due to the ex- 
pansion of the permanent gases, is in a great measure compensated by the heat stored up 



45 

in the liquid residue. The total theoretical work of gunpowder, indefinitely expanded, is 
about 486 foot tons per lb. of powder. For many other important details and formula 1 , 
reference should be made to the original paper which appeared in the Philosophical 
Transactions of the Royal Society, 1875. 

The cost of potassium nitrate has occasioned many experiments to be made with a 
view to replacing it by other nitrates, especially with that of sodium ; but the deliques- 
cent character of that salt is so objectionable that, although it is largely employed in mak- 
ing blasting powder, it is little used for the other varieties. By substituting uncarbonized 
peat in place of part of the carbon, Mr. Oliver has lately succeeded in making a powder 
which when well rammed is claimed to give a high initial velocity with less recoil and 
smoke than ordinary grades of cheap powder. Kellow's powder was prepared several 
years ago from potassium nitrate, spent tan, and a little sulphur; and a similar blasting 
powder, under the name of Pudrolythe, has recently appeared in England. The latter 
is said from its slow rate of burning to have great lifting force in quarrying. 

The Chlorates. Potassium chlorate gives up its oxygen much more readily than po- 
tassium nitrate, and when mixed with carbon in various forms, makes a powder which 
explodes more sharply than gunpowder, and indeed resembles the chemical compounds in 
the suddenness and violence of its action. It was introduced, and considerably used in 
blasting, in this country a few years ago; but its extreme sensitiveness to friction led to 
many accidents, and it is now practically superseded by the nitro-glycerine mixtures. 
The principal forms were known as ITorsley's powder, Oriental Safety compound, White 
gunpowder, and Erhardt's powder — composed, respectively, by mixing potassium chlorate 
with nut galls, crude gamboge, potassium ferro-cyanide, and tannin. If sulphur be used 
in combination with the oxidizing agent, an extremely dangerous mixture is formed ; 
which, however, finds a special use as a priming for explosive bullets. 

By using potassium chlorate as an absorbant for combustible liquids, many of the ob- 
jections to this class are removed ; for the two portions may be kept separate, and only 
united as desired for use. Moreover, the incorporation, which with the carbon in a solid 
form is very dangerous, is rendered safe. A mixture of potassium chlorate and petrol- 
eum belongs to this type ; but a very powerful detonator, like a disc of guncotton, is need- 
ful to effect explosion. 

Guncotton. The history of guncotton is peculiarly interesting, and well illustrates 
the advantage of thorough experimental investigation in dealing with explosives. The 
germ of the discovery dates from 1832, when Braconnet ascertained that by dissolving 
starch in nitric acid and adding water, a white explosive solid was precipitated; to which 
the name xyloidin was given. Shortly after, pyroxilin was discovered by Pelouse in treat- 
ing paper, and cotton or linen cloth, with nitric acid. Guncotton was first made by Schon- 
bein in 1846, and at once attracted general notice as a possible substitute for gunpowder 
in the military service. Commissioners Avere appointed by several Governments to in- 
vestigate its properties ; but in every country except Austria adverse reports were made, 
based on its supposed liability to spontaneous explosion, its violent and irregular action, 
and its corroding residua. Baron von Lenk of the Austrian commission alone continued 
the study, and made an elaborate series of experiments which promised so well that, in 
1853, he constructed a 12-pdr. field battery which was temporarily introduced into the 
Austrian service. His improvements consisted in more thoroughly purifying the ingre- 



46 






dients, in devoting special attention to removing all traces of acid from the finished prod- 
net, in rinsing it in a hot solution of potassium silicate to retard combustion, and in reg- 
ulating the density by weaving it into cloth, or twisting it into ropes, to secure uniformity 
of action. This Austrian success led the British War Office to renewed experiments ; 
and, beginning his investigations in 1863, Mr. Abel has succeeded in so greatly improv- 
ing the manufacture that gun cotton is now recognized as the safest known explosive. 
Although not suited for use in artillery, it has been adopted by many nations for the tor- 
pedo service, and is very largely used for blasting purposes. Abel's principal improve- 
ments consist in thoroughly pulping the guncotton after its treatment with the mixed 
acids, and moulding it into discs which are strongly compressed by applying pressure 
ranging from 4 to 6 tons per square inch. He employs ordinary cotton waste instead of 
the expensive long staple variety adopted by Lenk ; and his pulping process effectually 
removes all free acid, which could not certainly be done in the Austrian method of man- 
ufacture. The recent discovery that even wet guncotton can be detonated by exploding 
a dry disc in contact with it, while it is absolutely safe against ordinary accidents, has 
largely added to the value of this new explosive. If frozen, however, it recovers its lia- 
bility to detonation. It is reported that works will soon be established in tiiio country , 
under the Abel patent, with a view to introducing guncotton into general use horo . 

The chemical formula, of guncotton is C 6 H 7 ISTg 11 . Ignited (in the form of discs) 
in small quantities, and unconfmed, it burns with a strong blaze. Fired by a detonating 
fuze, or raised to a tenperature of about 350° Fah. in a stout case, it explodes with great 
violence. Very recently, attempts have been made to furnish the slightly deficient sup- 
ply of oxygen by soaking in a solution of potassium nitrate or chlorate, and experiments 
in this direction, as well as the manufacture in a granulated form, mark the latest stages 
of progress. 

In practice, the detonation of all modern explosives is usually effected by the use of 
small initial charges of fulminates ; and some very surprising facts have recently been 
established which go far to induce a belief that synchronism in vibration is an -important 
element. Thus compressed guncotton may be detonated by 5 grains of fulminating mer- 
cury, but requires 50 grains of chloride of nitrogen, and fails with 100 grains of iodide 
of nitrogen, and even with 124 grains of nitro-glycerine itself, which developes far more 
heat and mechanical force. On the other hand, a small initial charge of guncotton read- 
ily detonates nitro-glycerine. Fulminating mercury is usually adopted in practice for 
this use, to which it appears to be especially suited. 

Mr. Abel has recently determined the velocity of detonation, transmitted from disc 
to disc of dry guncotton in contact, to be about 17 000 feet per second ; while if the discs 
are saturated with water it is decidedly higher — say 20 000 feet. 

Nitro-glycerine. This explosive was discovered in 1847 by Ascagne Sobrero, but 
was first introduced into general use in blasting by Alfred Nobel in 1864. Since that 
date, it has been largely employed in Europe and this country. It is the most powerful 
agent now known ; but, uncombined with absorbants, it is justly considered as dangerous 
in manipulation, and as unfit for long storage on account of liability to spontaneous de- 
composition, or even detonation, unless extreme care has been observed in its manufac- 
ture. 



47 

It is made by slowly introducing pure glycerine into a mixture of strong nitric and 
sulphuric acids, especial attention being paid to preventing a rise of temperature. There 
are believed to be three nitroglycerines, mono, di and tri ; and the chemical formula of 
the latter, which should be as exclusively produced as possible, is C 3 H 5 N 3 9 . Above 
40° Fah. it is an oily liquid having a specific gravity of 1.6, odorless and of a sweet taste. 
It is poisonous; and, if placed in contact with the skin even in small quantities before 
the system has become accustomed to its action, it produces violent headache. Below 40° 
Fah. it congeals into a white crystalline solid, which is nearly or quite unexplosive, and 
which may be handled or transported with safety. It may readily be thawed by intro- 
ducing the can into warm water, which restores its full explosive power. These charac- 
teristics are those of tri-nitro-glycerine. Important discrepancies reported in its properties, 
are believed to be caused by various admixtures of the lower nitro-glycerines. 

Nitro-glycerine, ignited in small quantities by a flame and unconfined, burns with dif- 
ficulty like an ordinary oil. At 423° Fah. it deflagrates violently. If ignited confined, 
or if subjected to the explosion of 15 grains of fulminating mercury, it detonates with 
tremendous force. Fully exploded, it gives off no injurious gases — an important advan- 
tage in tunnel blasting. 

The accidents which attended the use of nitro-glycerine in its liquid form, led Alfred 
Nobel to experiment with absorbents; and, in 18G6-7, he invented and introduced the ex- 
plosive known as dynamite or giant powder. This consists of 75 per cent, of nitro-glyc- 
erine and 25 per cent, of an inert silicious earth. The best variety of the latter is that 
known as kieselguhr, found in Hanover; but many others have been employed. Nitro- 
glycerine in this form possesses great advantages. It is less liable to accidental detona- 
tion from shocks, and to spontaneous combustion, than in the liquid state ; it is more con- 
venient to handle ; frozen in the state of loose powder, it does not lose the property of 
exploding from the action of the usual fuze (15 grains fulminating mercury), while if 
compressed into cartridges it becomes as inexplosive as nitro-glycerine itself; saturated 
with water, it retains its detonating power but requires a larger initial explosion to de- 
velop it; ignited in small quantities by a flame, and unconfined, it burns quietly. 

As already stated, many other absorbents beside kieselguhr have been used. They 
belong to two distinct classes — those which in themselves are explosive, and those which 
are inert. To the former belong guncotton, the product being glyoxiline, sawdust treat- 
ed with nitric and sulphuric acids, the product being dualin, some modification of the 
elements of gunpowder, the product being variously known as lithofractenr, rendrock, 
vulcan powder, dynamite No. 2, giant powder No. 2, etc. Among the inert absorbents 
may be named Boghead coal ashes, mica scales, artificially deposited silica, etc. 

While it will generally be admitted that the detonating force of these compounds is 
derived solely from the nitro-glycerine contained in them, the percentage of which varies 
greatly owing to differences in their power of absorption, it is far from true that their 
economic value as explosives can be thus compared. The element of time, which deter- 
mines whether a blow or a push is delivered, is of primary importance ; and should prac- 
tically determine which compound should be selected. In flint rock, no explosive can 
compete in force with liquid nitro-glycerine ; but for common earth, gunpowder is far 
more effective. Between these limits, most of the nitro-glycerine compounds named above 
may find a use. 



48 

The Picrates. Picric acid was discovered in 1788 by Haussman, when treating in- 
digo with concentrated nitric acid ; but it is now often derived from other substances, es- 
pecially from carbolic acid. It is used in commerce as a dye, being of a brilliant yellow 
color and unexplosive. Its salts are numerous, and are more or less explosive ; the potas- 
sium and ammonium salts, often in connection with potassium nitrate or chlorate, are 
those usually employed for that purpose. 

Potassium picrate possesses great explosive energy, but is dangerous to handle from 
liability to explode by friction. Designolle's powder, a mixture of potassium picrate and 
nitrate, sometimes with a little charcoal added, was formerly considerably used in France, 
but has ceased to be manufactured since the occurrence of a destructive accident. 

Brugiere powder, a mixture of ammonium picrate and potassium nitrate, is widely 
different in its properties, being safe against friction, and slower in action. Abel has re- 
cently proposed to use it in shells, under the name Picric powder ; and Hill is experi- 
menting with it as a possible substitute for gunpowder in spar torpedoes. 

The Fulminates. The salts of fulminic acid are easily exploded, and some of them 
are dangerously sensitive to friction, electricity, etc. They are never used in large quan- 
tities — not only because of the great danger of handling them, but also because the vol- 
ume of gas given off is small, thus limiting the range of effect. Fulminating mercury 
(C g Hg ]ST 2 2 ) is the only one of them which at the present time has much practical 
value ; it is largely used in fuzes, percussion caps, primers, etc. When wet it is unexplo- 
sive, and for securit}' it should always be kept and handled in that state. 

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, 
HENRY L. ABBOT. 
Win. H. NOBLE. But. Brig. General, U. S. A., 

Maj. Royal Artillery, ' Chairman. 

Secretary. 



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